


Dearly Beloved

by RaeBright



Category: Invader Zim
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Blood and Injury, Canon-Typical Violence, Established Relationship, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-09
Updated: 2019-10-26
Packaged: 2020-11-28 11:27:51
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 7
Words: 22,591
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20965802
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RaeBright/pseuds/RaeBright
Summary: Death didn’t have to be permanent when you’re part of one of the most elite alien races and had the technology to reverse it.Just because not everyone agreed with him that didn’t mean he shouldn’t go through with it. He just couldn’t bear to part with him yet.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Based on a role play I’m doing with a friend of mine where Zim has finally been deleted by the Brains for his screw up with the Florpus Hole. 
> 
> Dib had decided to save him by taking him to The Resisty where we placed Skoodge has a scientist. There the pair replaced Zim’s PAK and the poor babe now lives life as every other organism does; by eating, sleeping, and taking care of himself! Obviously through a whole bunch of turmoil and care on Dib’s part the pair grew close but Dib ended up dying.
> 
> Typical hurt/comfort and angst - I just needed somewhere to put this and Ao3 was the best place. So enjoy!

ORA sounded like a dumb name now that he was thinking about it, now that he was sat here alone in his laboratory and writing her coding on his keyboard attached to Computer. Even if it sounded dumb he couldn’t be bothered to rename her nor could he bear to rename the project she was encoded to run, Mothman. It was all so fitting. Wasn’t it? Surely _he _would appreciate it… In the end anyway. After all, wasn’t that the name he had given himself on that site he frequented?

The keys clacked loudly as he typed away in silence, the last line of coding scrawling across the monitor in familiar Irken lettering. It lit up his features in typical Empire maroon, a color he had begun to despise and distance himself from over the past two months. Zim had spent weeks on this, poured every ounce of his literal soul and being into this. It was important to him and extremely so. Far more important than any other project he’d ever tasked himself with over his seven year stay on Earth. Taking over the ball of dirt had meant to be just that, important, but somehow this was far more. Nothing the Tallest or the Resisty could give him would ever compare.

It was priority number one. It encompassed his every thought. From the time he woke up until he went to bed, ORA’s and Mothman’s coding is what he worked on. For weeks, tirelessly, without a break and sometimes even skipping meals. Gir probably felt neglected by now but he felt if he took any amount of free time, for himself or for someone else, he’d lose sight of his project. What focus he had dedicated specifically for this would vanish and it wouldn’t turn out the way he intended for it to. 

Sometimes Gir would come waddling down from upstairs, having grown bored of the television or curious about what his master was up to. He’d climb into Zim’s lap and just sit in silence as he watched the words being displayed across the screen. There was a chance that Gir understood them but Zim wasn’t going to hold his breath. Gir at least understood that he needed to be quiet while he was in here with him, watching and observing. Even if some days Zim wasn’t sure if it weren’t so much the fact the Gir was silent because of the project or because he understood the gravity of the situation Zim had found himself in.

Gir was a wonder, that was for sure but Zim was thankful for him all the same.

“Calibration completed, Master,” Computer spoke monotonously from above him a mere few seconds after Zim’s finger had tapped against the enter key, voice uncharacteristically soft.

His chair squeaked as he turned it to face the operating table to his left and standing to take the one step it took to rest at its side. He lifted a hand and pulled at the bandage wrapped around his right eye, blinking away the icky film as he spoke, “ORA, report.”

“_CPU Online_,” a feminine voice droned out loud as his vision grained over, discoloring on his right side as he glanced around the laboratory room in hopes of getting used to it quicker, “_Functionality of Project Mothman at 100%. Project Mothman currently in sleep mode._”

She was awfully chipper for an AI. Had Zim programmed that into her or was that just her personality? He couldn’t remember doing it himself. Computer seemed to have one of his own that Zim had no part in so it wasn’t very far fetched for her to have one as well. He’d think about that later.

“ORA,” once his voice had been cleared of all signs of nervousness and he’d focused his gaze on the figure lying stiffly on the table in front of him, he spoke up a bit louder than before, demand dripping from his voice, “wake Project Mothman.”

“_Waking._”

The figure jolted suddenly against the metal operation table as if electrocuted but didn’t open his eyes, fingers twitching to life and chest heaving a sigh outward almost in annoyance. Zim took a step back then to give the other space, watching every little movement in careful calculation, studying every slight twitch. He himself remained silent as the other gave a small groan in protest to waking, keeping his eyes trained on the other once he had sat up and swung his legs over the side of the table so his feet could meet the floor. He still hadn’t opened his eyes and Zim wasn’t sure why. Was he always this hard to wake in life? Maybe it was a residual effect or a bug in his coding. Of course, Zim hadn’t given Mothman a command yet, ORA was simply doing as she was told, waking his CPU. What he did with it was his own doing, right?

But then they did open. And their eyes locked. And briefly Zim’s breath hitched in his throat. That familiar pair of amber bore into his own magenta ones except for this time there was nothing there. No fire, or passion. No desire to expose him or argue. Any sort of recognition that Zim would think the other would have, even of the recent memories they shared together of being _friendly_ didn’t spark in those slight browns as he stared back and Zim had to backpedal a step away physically.

“Stand,” his tongue stumbled around the word as he gave the command, his eyes averting to glare at the floor as Dib slipped from the table to tower over him, “What is your name?”

“Dib Membrane.”

Okay, this was good, “And your sister?”

“Gaz.”

Even better, “Your father is a…?”

“Scientist.”

So the CPU was keeping up with fast paced questions perfectly, brilliant, “And I am?”

“Master.”

Oh jeeze…

“Eh?!” Zim coughed around the spit he had sucked back in surprise, a hand coming to his chest to pat it away gently as his features lit up in a brilliant shade of blue, his antenna shooting up in embarrassment, “**No**, I am Zim…”

“Of course. Zim.”

Any other given day he would have been overjoyed to hear that word uttered from the human’s mouth. Had it been a year ago then he would have cackled in maniacal victory for having bested Dib. But it didn’t feel right now. Not after everything they had been through. After getting to know each other and Zim showing the other as much of himself as he had? The word ‘master’ felt off coming from Dib. They were equals now, as odd as that sounded. 

“Continue to call me Zim,” his voice had long since ceased in being commanding, losing its edge and growing soft as his shoulders sagged, “Please.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Stop that!” Zim stamped his foot against the cold metal of the floor for emphasis, his eyes narrowing into slits as if daring Dib to defy him a second time.

At least Dib was still a stubborn asshole. That hadn’t changed. Yet. It was very likely any sort of leftover personality that Dib could still have locked away in there that was so painfully _Dib_ could easily be overridden by the CPU and deleted as a bug or used up for free space. There wasn’t much personality here to begin with, Dib didn’t even look at him the same way but Zim at least had hope…

What hope he did have was slim. Skoodge had warned him against this endeavor. Had actually put his foot down for a number of days, long enough that Zim was forced to put Dib’s body on ice just to give himself enough time to convince the other Irken to help him, at least with ORA. That in and of itself was a feat. Skoodge had saved his life once already and convincing him to go through with another surgery only for Zim to essentially raise the dead? Zim knew there was a chance he could be stuck with an Android. He knew that there was a chance this would never be Dib, that he’d never regain his memories or they’d never have what they had before. He knew but he had to try. It was better than living the rest of his days alone in his base on Earth, wasn’t it…?

A long and exhausted sigh escaped him as he shut his eyes, a hand coming up to rub at his temples in mild frustration. If Skoodge saw Dib now then all Zim was going to receive would be an ‘I told you so’ and Zim wasn’t looking forward to that conversation. Now he had to come up with a lie about his progress so Skoodge didn’t decide to pop in for a ‘visit’ to check up on him. Only if the other decided on a transmission, of course but knowing Skoodge the Irken definitely would. It had surprised Zim that he hadn’t already, in fact. There was no telling how Dib would react to a visitor right now because Skoodge wasn’t even in his database as friendly yet. Dear Irk, someone help him…

“Sit down, Dib…” once more, his voice was soft and lacking command but the sentence was still meant as such as he moved away from Dib and over toward his chair to sit back down and turn toward the computer monitor. The least he could do is add Skoodge to Dib’s database so the other didn’t attack him, that would be considered hospitable. Ya know, so that Dib _didn’t_ try to kill Skoodge because he thought the other Irken was an intruder.

What Zim had missed, however, was that Dib hadn’t sat back down. Hadn’t moved at all, actually. ORA didn’t alert him to the missed command and his back was firmly turned to the AI standing stiffly behind him as he typed away on the keyboard. Due in part to the fact that he had become so thoroughly desensitized to the human being in his laboratory by now, Zim had also become used to letting his guard down around Dib. He’d grown comfortable with the human even if Dib was more AI than human now. His guard was so thoroughly dropped, he was so thoroughly preoccupied and lost in his musings that he didn’t notice how Dib currently flared into his back or turned stiffly to stall toward him.

A step was taken, quiet and soft, before another and another, and Dib was standing right behind Zim as all of the alien’s focus was placed on the coding in front of him. His movements were agile and swift, faster than when he were a human and by the time Zim _was_ turning around - likely at the feeling of someone standing so close behind him - Dib was already lashing out and had his hand wrapped around the other’s neck.

“Wha-“ the chair squeaked across the floor harshly as Dib shoved Zim deep into its cushion and the back slammed against the work desk with a loud thud. With a surprised hiss Zim jammed his foot into the other’s chest in an attempt to create some sort of distance between them, “Dib, what are you doing?!”

Their eyes locked once more and Zim could see a shift in them, something that wasn’t there before. Regret? Confusion? He couldn’t tell. But then Dib’s grasp tightened and cut off his airflow and he gasped, one of his own hands shooting up to grab at Dib’s wrist in an attempt to keep him from squeezing any harder as the other dig into the fabric of his chair to ground himself. His own gaze was more frantic, narrowing in hurt confusion as he stared back at Dib. He shouldn’t be capable of this. Free thought was dangerous for AI, for something as intelligent as what Dib was meant to be.

“ORA, shut down!”

No response. Zim could hear her humming inside of his head, could hear her droning on, but she wasn’t responding to him. 

“ORA, I said shut down!!” 

He tried again, with more command, more desperation this time literally dripping from his voice and he could hear the faintest of beeps from inside. It was almost as if she couldn’t access Mothman and therefore couldn’t finish her command. ORA didn’t know what else to do so instead of giving Zim the bad news she instead opted for silence. Just perfect! Dib was unconsciously locking him out!

“Dib-“ his voice was cut off as Dib’s hold tightened and Zim wheezed, gagging softly. The foot he had planted against Dib’s chest pushed against the other hard enough to jostle him but he wasn’t near strong enough to shove the other off.

Dib was stronger. While Zim wasn’t weak he wasn’t connected to the Brains any longer. He functioned like every other living organism in the galaxy now. And that meant that Dib could most assuredly kill him. The Android was easily stronger than him, stronger than most known organic life in the galaxy. If Zim didn’t get this damn thing under control-

When Dib’s hold slackened abruptly and he fell into him before sliding off and into the floor with a thud, Zim took in a much needed gulp of air as he gasped, sputtered, and coughed. A silver connector from Computer slithered back up into the rafters of the laboratory as Zim collected himself, adjusting his lab coat and trying to clear the burn from his throat.

“Are you alright, sir?”

“Report…?” his voice was strained, broken even, and he winced as his throat burned. Zim had been choked numerous times before, even by Dib himself, but never by anything as strong as an Android...

Computer hesitated, growing silent. Probably trying to read the diagnostics from Zim’s PAK to assess the damage even if Zim could have done so himself later, “Muscle memory left over from months prior. His fight or flight locked you and ORA out, short circuited her. She’s rebooting.”

Zim’s gaze locked on Dib’s prone form left sprawled across the metal floor beside his chair, his hand still nursing the obvious purpling bruises that were bound to be showing by now. Would that happen again if he rebooted Dib? Would he attack him again? His vision clouded over with tears and Zim had to tear his eyes away from Dib to focus them elsewhere in a vain attempt to regain his composure. Skoodge was definitely going to lecture him…

“It was only muscle memory,” Computer spoke up again, almost in a reassuring manner, and it startled Zim enough that the tears fell in droplets onto his pants, wetting the fabric in dark circles, “It shouldn’t happen again. It’s out of his system-“

“It. This _thing _isn’t Dib… I don’t know how I could fool myself into thinking it ever could be…”


	2. Chapter 2

“He attacked you?!”

“That’s what I said…”

“Zim, I told you this would be a bad idea! How long have you been letting him walk around the base?! Does he have free thought?! Are you even checking the data ORA is sending you?!”

Was it sad that he wasn’t even listening? Or putting forth any sort of effort into looking like he was faking it? Skoodge had been squawking for a good hour now and all Zim had wanted to do was eat. In fact, that was his main reason for being in the kitchen to begin with, reheating that plate of leftover pancakes from yesterday. It wasn’t his fault that Skoodge had decided that today of all days was ‘visitation day’. Zim hadn’t even been aware he was coming. Skoodge hadn’t sent a transmission or any such other contact, the Irken had simply opened the front door and let himself in. Zim was starting to regret white listing the moron from the base’s defenses.

“How many times?”

“For what?”

“Has he attacked you?”

“Dear Irk- Once! It was once, Skoodge! Zim is not some damsel in distress, I can handle myself!” the plate he had pulled (or yanked, rather) from the microwave had been slammed on the table. It was loud enough that it caused Gir to jump in his usual seat beside Zim’s empty one and Zim’s hands soon followed after as they too were slammed against the surface and the table rocked from the change in pressure. With a sneer he glared over at the other Irken, “If you so much as utter-“

“I told you so?” Skoodge cut him off swiftly which only earned him a snarl in return before he finished as he crossed his arms tightly about his chest, “This is dangerous and you know it. We haven’t even finished our work eradicating the Control Brains and you’re trying to play house with a dead body!”

Zim glanced away quickly as his antenna pressed flat against his head in agitation, teeth clenching together. He’d already spent a week with Dib and things were… Well, they weren’t _fine_ but they weren’t bad. Dib’s AI was learning quickly. What it lacked in personality it made up for in functionality. Zim had a use for the other. He was tall, well mannered, he listened. He could reach things on higher shelves without Zim needing to use his PAK legs! Dib was useful and not even Skoodge could argue that fact. Or that’s what he told himself at least.

“You still have work for The Resisty. Remember?” his voice was softer now as he inched a tad bit closer to the table, steps soft and gentle just as his voice was. His eyes scoured over Zim’s figure as if searching for any sign that the other were about to lash out at him when he didn’t readily speak up. It wasn’t like Zim to be so resigned and that worried him, “Is this going to get in the way?”

One of Zim’s hands lifted from the table to rub at his left eye with an open palm and he sighed in heavy annoyance, voice dripping with malcontent as he spoke, “In the way of what, Skoodge?”

“The Resisty. Your job. We have a lot riding on you and you know that,” now Skoodge was leaning over the table with his hands against the surface to see Zim better, his eyes narrowed defiantly in Zim’s direction as the two stared between themselves, “I helped program ORA. If I have to, Zim-“

“You touch Dib, Skoodge,” Zim’s voice lowered to a snarl as he cut the other off, refusing to allow that particular sentence to finish, “and it will take far more than the Irken Armada or The Massive to keep me from tearing your arms off and beating you to death with them.”

A silence settled between the pair as they stubbornly locked gazes, one in anger and one in worry. Once upon a time Skoodge remembered Zim’s base being one of the more lively among any of the other Invaders. Something was always going on and it was hard to keep track of the comings and goings through call alone. Out of all of the transmissions Skoodge had ever accepted while he was invading or off planet, Zim’s had always been the most enjoyable. Thanks mostly to Gir but Zim had his own charm, of course. There was none of that fire now, none of Zim’s usual spark. It was all bitter resentment. A sadness that Zim couldn’t shake. An insatiable hunger for revenge for what had happened to Dib, revenge that Zim might never even see. Even Gir was downtrodden, Computer as well, everyone had gotten so close to Dib during Zim’s seven year long ‘mission’ to Earth. Losing him had been a blow that was going to take a good while to recover from and the aftermath was felt throughout the entire household. 

“Is there a problem here?”

Both Irken startled at the familiarly unfamiliar voice as it entered the kitchen and hung around the archway like a shadow, eyes flickering from Zim to Skoodge and back again before settling on the latter and staying there, eyes narrowing in distrust. His CPU was assessing who he was, picking through his memory bank to see if Zim had entered him into his coding as friendly. Just as likely as it was for Zim to have done it, it was also likely that he hadn’t so Skoodge refused to move yet as Dib eyed him up and down. 

The ‘human’ was tall. Not quite as tall as some of the other humans that Skoodge had seen in passing but knowing how strong the now Android was? Dib was intimidating. 

“He giving you trouble, Zim?” Dib leaned his shoulder against the archway of the kitchen lazily, his eyes finally leaving Skoodge to land on Zim who was standing on the opposite end of the table farthest from Dib.

“Eh…? Oh. No more than usual…?” the answer came out more like a question and where there was meant to be some bite there was confusion instead as Zim averted his gaze before the pair could make eye contact.

Dib blinked in response, a slow and purposeful blink as he shifted his stance to straighten his back and push himself away from the arch where he was perched. Once more he looked toward Skoodge and once more his eyes narrowed. They seemed to glow just faintly as his pupils darted from left to right, as if he were reading some sort of coding that only he could see. Likely an attachment from ORA- Oh. Was he diagnosing Zim?

“I’m gonna head back to the base,” it was best that he left on his own accord before Dib physically pushed him out. Or threw him out. If Dib read in between the lines correctly then both of those outcomes were very likely. Skoodge tore his eyes away from Dib to give a final glance to Zim who looked toward him almost shyly, “I’ll be back to check up on you when I can.”

“Zim needs no babysitter,” the words were soft but bitter and Zim crossed his arms in defiance. His body language poured his typical snark with his perfect posture and chin held high but it didn’t quite reach his face and it brought a frown to Skoodge’s features.

He was silent for a moment longer, only looking away to spy Gir quietly munching on one of the pancakes he had swiped from the top of the stack on Zim’s plate before he was heaving his own exhausted sigh, “I didn’t know him as long as you did but if it helps I miss him too.”

“Go home, Skoodge,” Zim hissed, his eyes narrowed venomously in Skoodge’s direction.

“Yeah,” with one last worried look at Zim, Skoodge turned and walked towards Dib, stopping just beside the taller to stare up at him as he whispered a low, “Look after him,” in passing.

A thick blanket of quiet settled over the kitchen as Zim listened to Skoodge’s footsteps, as the front door opened and closed with a gentle click and then he sighed in obvious relief. That’s when Zim finally relaxed and allowed himself to deflate, every muscle in his body already aching. He all but collapsed into his chair with a small tired huff, lifting his left arm out of the way to allow Gir to crawl from his seat and into his lap before wrapping his arms around the Unit and pulling him close. Maybe Skoodge really was just _that_ worried and Zim couldn’t fault him for that but Zim could handle this. Dib was his responsibility, it had been his fault that it had happened anyway.

Gir’s little arms wrapped around his neck in a hug, the hood of his dog suit hanging from the neckline to rest against his back. He was quiet which would have been unusual if it weren’t for the fact that Gir had been so for the past week now. Everything had changed so quickly for all of them and Gir wasn’t exactly the brightest crayon in the box. While he could understand things, it took time for him to truly grasp it. For something like this? A loss? Dib had actually grown close to Gir. Gir **adored** Dib even if Zim loathed the fact years ago. He had understood when Zim explained that Dib was gone and what Dib was now after the eighteenth time. They were just playing the waiting game for Gir to come around.

“You should probably get some sleep.”

Dib’s voice startled him, enough that he jolted and had to frantically look in the other’s direction just to make sure he actually had spoken or he’d just thought he had. When their eyes locked, Zim noticed the faint blue glow of Dib’s own and Zim rolled his eyes, “Taken to reading ORA’s coding now, Dib-pig?”

“Mmhh,” it wasn’t so much an answer as it was a marker to stall, Dib clearly focused on what he was seeing before his attention was brought back to Zim, “Not the coding. I can diagnose you through ORA.”

“Well, I’ll be deleting _that _feature in the near future…” Zim muttered under his breath, the hold he had on Gir tightening just the slightest defensively.

Dib grew quiet as he studied Zim, his posture, the way he held Gir, the way he breathed and sighed, the way he averted his gaze. The faint glow to his eyes dissipated gradually to amber as he spoke, “I don’t think that’s a wise decision considering it doesn’t seem like you’re taking care of yourself.”

“Bite me,” the words were growled as Zim shifted so he could gently move Gir out of the way and into his original seat, his eyes now narrowing into a glare, “What Zim does is none of your concern.”

“Skoodge programmed-“

“I don’t care what Skoodge programmed into you!” Zim jumped to his feet as he banged his fist on the table, breathing erratically in anger, “My health is my own to worry about, not yours! I created your CPU, not Skoodge!”

It was unnerving to not receiving any sort of reaction from Dib. No snarl, no scoff, no roll of his eyes. Not even a twitch. Dib would have jumped at the chance to bite at an argument before, genuine or not because Dib never took anything laying down. It wouldn’t have mattered the consequences because that was their relationship no matter how close they had gotten. Zim didn’t like it, this unwavering obedience. He thought he would have at one time but now?

“So is that a ‘no’ to getting some sleep?”

Zim scoffed. The absolute nerve. It didn’t matter what he built, they always had an attitude, “Yes, it’s a ‘no’, Stink-beast.”

“I see,” Dib almost sounded worried but Zim could also just be hearing things. Wishful thinking, looking for familiarity in the Android. Something to that effect. When Dib cleared his throat Zim had still refused to grace the other with his acknowledgment, deciding on keeping his gaze on Gir who had stolen yet another pancake, “I suppose I’ll head back down to the laboratory then?”

“Do as you please, it makes no difference to Zim,” he spat, his claws threatening to dig holes into the cheap wood of the kitchen table from how hard he was gripping at the edges. 

Was it so bad that he just wished for things to be normal again? For the old Dib back? For _his_ Dib back? And not just the Dib that would foil all of his plans. Not just the Dib that could keep his ego in check. The Dib he had come to know in the weeks leading up to the attack from the Tallest. The Dib that would give him that dorky little smile that Zim _used_ to hate but now missed. The Dib he felt like he could finally talk to… 

Dib’s footsteps began to recede and the sound of the side table lifting from the floor to reveal one of the many elevators leading down to the laboratory had Zim releasing his hold on the table. However, he didn’t release the breath he had been holding until he heard the elevator descend into the depths and the side table fall back down into place. When Zim had first gotten this idea it seemed foolproof at the time… 

“Mary seems better,” Gir was smiling at him from his seat, little hands tapping an unorthodox beat on the table gently as he swung his legs back and forth.

“Yeah…? You think so?”

“Yup!” a confident and decisive nod followed the one word answer before Gir was stealing another pancake from Zim’s plate, “Still gots a huuuuuge head!”


	3. Personality Leak One

As the sky began to gradually shift in colors, the dark blue of the night bleeding out into a soft pinkish orange in a natural ombré, Gir trotted through the living room from the front door casually humming an indistinct tune. Of course he left the front door wide open as well, he’d be heading back out of it soon enough. With a small tap of the handle on the door that obviously didn’t open, the side table located beside the archway to the kitchen lifted up from the floor as the tiles parted to reveal the elevator hidden underneath and Gir stepped onto it. It shifted at the weight naturally to adjust before shooting down with the little Unit, descending floor after floor as Gir tilted back and forth on the balls of his feet.

“You’re awful chipper this morning.”

“Ooohhh yeeeaaaah,” he had news, that was right. That was his whole reason for heading to Master’s bedroom in the first place! Thanks, Computer! “Mary’s up to somethin’ good!”

Computer paused as the elevator doors opened with a gentle whoosh to a darkened room, the light of the elevator illuminating enough of the room that Gir could see to waddle his way to the edge of the bed with no issues, “This doesn’t _sound_ like it’s going to be ‘good’.”

The plush mattress shifted under him to accommodate for the extra weight as Gir climbed up toward the pillows. A string of star shaped lights dangled from the ceiling above, gently glowing a faint soft blue and darkening the purple of the blanket Zim was curled up in. Gir prodded at the star closest to him as he stood on the pillows, reaching his little arms high enough and poking hard enough that it shook three more stars next to it. They clacked together gently, the plastic making a slight noise that was soft enough that it didn’t wake the Irken sleeping at Gir’s feet. 

“I love these lights…” the Unit mused as he poked at another one, albeit far more gently than he did the last.

“Don’t you have something to tell Master?” Computer broke the quiet momentarily though his voice didn’t raise any higher than Gir’s own soft and distracted mumble as he turned on the star themed projection lamp on the bedside table. It illuminated the grey walls in a warm glow as stars cascaded over the walls in a circular pattern. Gir was already going to put Zim in a bad mood so why should Computer worsen it by turning on the main light?

Speaking of, Gir gasped scandalously as he hopped from the pillow and scrambled over Zim’s back with hast. The Irken groaned in protest, curling farther into himself as Gir settled on his shoulders with a bounce, “Master! Wake up!”

“Gir, get offa me…” the words were muffled by the pillow Zim had buried his face into but his antenna twitched in annoyed interest as Gir bounced again persistently.

“Master, come on!” since the bouncing wasn’t doing the trick, Gir took to shaking Zim as well, using both of his hands to rock Zim back and forth as hard as he could as his voice raised excitedly, “Mary’s on the phone with important people!”

A tired snort left Zim as he rolled his shoulders and effectively pushed the little Unit off of him and onto the spare pillows behind him, “Let him be, Gir.”

“But it’s the Tallies!”

Zim shot up in bed then with an almost terrified gasp escaping him, the springs of the mattress squeaking from the sudden shift as the blanket pooled around his waist. Frantic wide eyes locked on Gir’s own and he grabbed at the Unit’s shoulders, “That isn’t possible. He can’t have, Gir!”

“Iunno!” said shoulders shrugged in Zim’s hold, Gir’s head tilting to the side as a hand lifted to tap at his temple in thought, “Alls I know is, he looked at the sky and said they’re coming!”

“They’re coming…?” Zim mimicked the words slowly, eyes narrowing in confusion, “Dib is supposed to be in sleep mode, where is he??”

“On the roof!”

“How on Irk did he get up there!?”

“Used his legs.”

With a roll of his eyes, Zim grabbed the stuffed ice cream shaped pillow near him to shove it into Gir’s face gently. It would have been considered playful if it weren’t for the fact that he was just the slightest bit panicked. Unfortunately he’d gotten used to that feeling, the feeling of his veins icing over as his adrenaline pumped into unneeded overdrive. To say he hated it was a vast understatement, dealing with feelings was one of the only disadvantages to being disconnected from the Brains. He wasn’t even bothering to change out of his nightshirt, which was simply an old gaming t-shirt of Gaz’s, opting instead to simply toss the blankets from his person and pull his boots on once he’d rounded the bed to his closet, that’s how panicked he was. Worst case was that The Tallest really were coming and they were in some serious life-or-death trouble. Hopefully something simply happened with Dib’s AI and he was merely babbling nonsense. That Zim could fix.

“We gonna go meet the Tallies too?!” Gir had by now jumped to his feet, holding the ice cream pillow high in the air above his head as he watched Zim fiddle with the zipper on his right boot from his spot perched on the end of the bed.

“No, Gir.”

“Awh, man…”

“You’re positive he said ‘they were coming’?” Zim snatched the pillow out of Gir’s hold gently and tossed it behind the Unit. It soared through the air to land on the rest of the pillows at the head of the bed with a plop before Zim plucked him up to place him on the dark purple rug that lay sat between the end of the bed and the elevator.

“Mhm!” arms outstretched at his sides, Gir took off toward the elevator with Zim in tow, “Was all serious, lookin’ at the stars and junk! Gots a listening thingie with headphones on!”

“Eh?” the elevator doors closed after Zim once he had entered and it began to ascend upwards swiftly, “How’d he get all of that…?”

Surely Zim didn’t have any of that laying around. And Skoodge didn’t leave his own. What would either of them need a listening device for? They had members in The Resisty who did that for them. Had Dib built it…? Would he have remembered how to? Question after question popped into his head but he was no closer to a viable explanation than he was before when he was asking Gir. It wasn’t very likely asking Dib would get him anywhere either…

The elevator opened up to the living room and Zim was the first to move, stepping out before it had even stopped moving and already bounding for the door in long strides. Behind him he could hear Gir toddling along just as quick, if not faster in means to keep up, and Zim was just a mere few steps toward the still opened door until it dawned on him. Literally. The time!

“Computer-“

“6:15am. Your neighbors aren’t awake. You can climb to the roof without your disguise so long as you get him back inside before 7:00am.”

Okay, he could do that. All he had to do was override his AI with ORA if he didn’t listen or became unruly. Right? Dib tended to listen anyhow.

“Gir,” Zim turned toward the little Unit and knelt down, hugging his knees to his chest to be better eye level with him, “Zim needs you to stay here. Can you do that?”

At first he pouted, bottom lip jutting out and eyes welling with tears before he hung his head. He wanted to go with Zim. What if something happened to him? Or to Mary? Or to both of them? That was worse! But before any of those tears could fall the television cut on with a click and Gir’s attention was torn from Zim as said tears magically dried up. An awed ‘oohh’ left his lips as he backtracked for the couch and gave Zim a lazy salute, “Oookaaayy, I’m gonna watch T.V. now~!”

“You’re welcome, by the way.”

“Computer, you’re missing the point of ‘thank you’,” Zim rolled his eyes as he stood and turned on his heel to march out of the opened door in a hurry.

With a soft click the door was shut behind him, every fiber in his being yelling for him to be as quiet as possible fearing that the slightest of sounds would wake his neighbors. Or the entire neighborhood knowing his luck, that’s how things usually turned out for him. Even his rushed footsteps were silent, the grass brushing up against his boots and wiping dew off onto the soft leather as he rounded the house to the side. 

All it took was a glance and he could see Dib’s head from his spot on the ground. From here he couldn’t see what he was doing but with a slight squint of his eyes he could tell that Dib was indeed wearing a set of headphones. They looked like Gir’s headphones, the pair the Unit used for his tablet (the one Zim was still trying to figure out where he got it from), Zim would notice that glaring hot pink color from anywhere.

His PAK legs disengaged, all four shooting out like bullets simultaneously. Zim knelt down before leaping as the legs dug into the grass and dirt to thrust him upwards into the air as he jumped, using that momentum to land him next to Dib on the roof. Just as he was standing and taking a step forward, his PAK legs returning with a small hiss, so had Dib. And they both smacked into each other. With force. Except now Zim wasn’t the strong one so he ended up being the one to fly back.

“Shi-!”

An arm wrapped around his waist and pulled him close, his slight chest pressing against Dib’s more broad one. Their eyes locked and Zim’s breath caught in his throat at the quick flash of recognition he saw there. The quick sliver of _Dib_, his Dib, stared down at him and Zim couldn’t bring himself to pull away.

Mere moments passed by as all Zim could do was gaze up at Dib in awed silence. Another moment more and his hand raised, slowly lifting up toward Dib as his fingers brushed against the Android’s jawline. Whatever device he had been holding in his free hand was dropped and left to clatter against the smooth surface of the roof and Zim’s wrist was snatched harshly. Dib yanked his hand away, face scrunching up in confusion as his eyes searched Zim’s.

“Zim…?”

Zim’s other hand moved quick, fingers twisting into the soft fabric of Dib’s jacket to pull the other closer desperately as he nodded, antenna perking hopefully, “Yes…?”

“I-I…What-?” with a shake of his head, likely in disbelief, Dib squeezed his eyes shut tightly. For a moment, the hold he had on Zim’s wrist tightened and it forced the alien to wince but he didn’t yet pull away. Then, after a beat of silence, the hold grew gentle and slackened and when his eyes opened again to meet with Zim’s hopeful gaze, the hint of Dib that had lingered in those amber colored orbs was gone, “Are you okay, Zim? What are we doing on the roof?”

“Wha-?!” anger flared immediately, hot and burning deep in his squeedlyspooch. Zim jerked his wrist from Dib’s gentle hold before he was planting both hands on the Android’s chest and *shoving* him back away from himself harshly, only succeeding in moving him back a step, “What do you mean ‘what are we doing on the roof’, you moron?!”

“Considering I don’t know why we’re up here, it’s a reasonable question,” his eyes never left Zim, the stare locked with Zim’s own even as the Irken looked away, “Was I not supposed to ask that?”

“Oh, dear Irk…” both hands lifted to rub at his temples as Zim felt the encroachment of a headache on the horizon right behind his eyelids. Could have been stress but Zim wouldn’t write off ORA being the cause just yet. He knew asking Dib about *anything* was going to get him nowhere, the Android likely didn’t even remember climbing up here to begin with. What was it that he’d even dropped anyway?

Zim lowered his hands to allow them to rest at his sides as his eyes fell to the device laying in a heap near his left foot. It was Gir’s tablet. The damned thing wasn’t even on. Thankfully the protective casing was on it so Zim didn’t have to repair it for a twelfth time. Dib was fairly tall, that was a long drop for such delicate human technology apparently.

He knelt down and picked both the tablet and headset up from off of the roof shingles, wiping off any dirt he saw and checking the outside for any obvious damage. Gir wouldn’t notice a few dents and scratches so Zim wouldn’t be too worried about that but if it didn’t function then Gir would absolutely lose it. Question was, how did Dib find it? Gir usually kept it hidden.

“Zim?”

“Come on, we have to get inside before the neighbors wake up,” without a moment’s hesitation, Zim sauntered for the edge of the roof with tablet and headset in hand, “As much as I would love to watch you stumble around an explanation as to why we’re up here at seven in the morning, I just can’t be bothered.”


	4. Personality Leak Two

Zim pulled his pants up and over his hips as he stood in front of the wall length mirror attached to his closet door. Every so often his antenna would twitch at a noise as Gir tapped away on his tablet quietly from his spot sat on the bed. The things that Unit watched on YooToob was questionable but it kept him occupied. More importantly it kept him from breaking things.

His wardrobe had changed the slightest since he was disconnected from the Brains. Wearing the Invader uniform left a bad taste in his mouth so opting out of wearing the same uniform day in and day out he had discarded everything. Though the pants stayed roughly the same, they were of the same material of his old ones and of the same black color. His top was a slightly darker maroon color than his old uniform and because Zim was more comfortable with long sleeves he had picked a slightly form fitting turtleneck sweater that fell just below his bottom. The neck was slightly large so it could be folded down and placed over the neckline of the lab coat which is what he liked the most about it. However he couldn’t ever part with his boots, those babies had literally carried him through doomsday and back.

Once his boots had been pulled on and zipped up, Zim slipped the lab coat up and onto his shoulders before adjusting his sweater and grabbing at his gloves. One was pulled on before-

//Step up, Kyle!!\\\

“hehehehe…”

//No, what did you say, bro?! Step the fuck up, Kyle!!\\\

“HAHAHAHAHA!!”

Antenna perked in confused interest and hand poised to pull his right glove on, Zim turned to look behind himself at Gir in confusion, brows furrowing, “Gir, what are you doing?”

“YooToob.”

Zim rolled his eyes, “Obviously.”

“Watchin’ videos.”

A large and exhausted sigh left Zim as he yanked on his glove the rest of the way. It was only nine in the morning and he was already tired. He knew Gir never really meant to be a smartass but, man, did it get on his nerves when he did it regardless.

“Are you staying here or coming with me to the lab?” he turned to look at Gir again who had his little finger poised and ready to tap on another video as he looked up toward Zim.

“Ooohhh,” the little Unit cooed as he slipped from his spot on the end of the bed to land with a thud on his feet on the floor, holding his tablet high in the air, “Labby works! Les do it!”

“Bring your headphones. Those videos are distracting,” Zim adjusted the lapels of his lab coat one final time in the mirror, eyes following after Gir’s reflection as he watched the Unit blatantly ignore his command and charge for the elevator like a bat out of hell, “Gir! Headphones!”

“Mary gots ‘em!”

Why the-? Zim swore to Irk that he had no idea what was even going on in his own base anymore. After the incident with Dib on the roof last week, Zim had taken to locking Gir’s tablet away in his room, the only room Dib didn’t have access to. Whatever that incident was, locking away the tablet had seemed to stop it. Zim was still shifting through ORA’s coding every night before bed for any breaks or lapses but he’d yet to see anything alarming and that meant he had no idea what was happening to Dib. Asking Dib got him nowhere because Dib didn’t even remember it. It was frustrating but Zim had dealt with Gir for seven years so that meant handling this wouldn’t be a problem, right? It was the same concept only Dib’s AI was far more intelligent!

“Then you had better turn it down,” following behind the other, Zim entered the elevator as the doors closed behind him with a soft whoosh before locking in place securely.

“Why?” tablet still held high and video paused on the screen, Gir smiled up at Zim in sweet adoration, “You gon listen to moooosic?”

Zim’s eyes narrowed down at the other, flickering from Gir to the screen of the tablet to catch a peek at what the video was titled as he spoke, “Zim might. You have a request?”

Blast, the title vanished before he could read it…

“Oldie! Some o’ that 80’s we like!” Gir bounced on the balls of his feet in excitement, jostling the tablet enough that the title had popped back onto the screen.

“The 80’s weren’t _that_ long ago, Gir…” his voice was soft as he grew distracted with his attention zeroing in on the words of the title. It was hard to read with Gir jumping around like a bunny on acid but the two words he could make out had him knitting his brows together.

Vines compilation. Where had he heard that phrase before? Maybe around the hi-skool? His fellow students became obsessed over the oddest of things… That didn’t explain how Gir had found them though. The little Unit usually listened to music, watched how to make snacks, or watched other people play with toys on YooToob, he’d never seen or heard Gir listening to these types of videos before… One could chalk it up to him having been busy with Dib these past few weeks. This whole month had been hectic, since Dib had passed Zim hadn’t been the same. He was easily distracted or was the polar opposite and buried himself in his work for hours. It was possible that Zim just didn’t notice certain things had changed about Gir. But the more he thought about it the more it didn’t sit right.

“We here!”

As soon as the elevator doors slid open to reveal the blackened out laboratory, Gir was the first to run out as he bound down the walkway toward the main computer console that Zim used. The blue of his eyes lit his way, his silhouette growing smaller the closer he got to the main work desk. Slowly Zim followed in behind the Unit, the lights of the laboratory cutting on one by one the farther he walked inside. Every computer monitor clicked on, static buzzing momentarily until a series of Irken coding scrolled across the screens. A blinking green line sat waiting at the end of the last text on the main monitor for Zim to continue typing as the other monitors began downloading the finished code for compression.

A small grunt left Gir as he crawled into the seat Zim had made for him two weeks prior, the tablet resting in his lap as he settled himself comfortably. Before, not even two months ago, having Gir in his laboratory was a sign that Zim had completely lost his mind. Most anything Gir touched, especially anything important, usually ended up broken. Going about replacing important Resisty technology would waste time that they didn’t have and Zim wouldn’t risk it if it weren’t for the fact that Gir seemed to be quite content with simply just sitting with Zim now.

While Gir would get curious and ask question after question a mile a minute if something caught his attention, that was the most he would do. The tablet kept him distracted enough and Zim honestly enjoyed the company. That and Computer could easily lock Gir out of the spare keyboards so it wasn’t as if the extra coding wasn’t protected!

//You ready to fuckin’ die?!\\\

“ehehehehe~”

//No- I’m a bad bitch, you can’t kill me!\\\

But Zim had forgotten that the headphones were with Dib and not in Gir’s possession. This was going to be fun.

His antenna flicked in annoyance as he turned his head to glare in Gir’s direction from his spot in his own seat. The video droned on for a few more seconds, some human smeet babbling on about someone named ‘Linda’ and how they needed to listen. If it weren’t so damned confusing then it wouldn’t be much of a bother. Maybe he wouldn’t even be focusing on it as thoroughly as he was now. Zim would tell Gir to turn it down and go about his business. But the fact that he had never before heard of Gir watching these types of videos? Everything in him hyperfixated on it and he wasn’t even sure why. They sounded so familiar!

“Gir,” once the video had ended, Zim took the chance to speak up, using Gir’s momentary lapse of attention span to distract him before he clicked on yet another video, “Turn that down. I can’t concentrate.”

//FUCK YA CHICKEN STRIPS!\\\

“Gir!!”

“Okay, okay, okay… jeeze…”

Sneaky little… Zim hadn’t even heard him click on another video! Or had he seen his finger move! Maybe the autoplay function was on so in the end it hadn't mattered but Zim still hadn’t appreciated it. In fact, the mild anger he felt boiling just under his skin just a moment prior still simmered but he could at least ignore it in favor of resuming his work.

Though he had taken a few precautious moments to watch as Gir scrolled through the video selections with his arms crossed. Almost as if he were daring Gir to pick another ‘Vines’ video. From his spot he couldn’t tell what the thumbnails looked like but they appeared darker than was typical for videos Gir usually picked. But then again what part of any of this morning had been typical so far?

Instead of wasting the energy thinking about it, Zim turned back to his main computer and rolled his chair closer to the keyboard with a gentle squeak. If all he did was wonder how Gir stumbled onto those videos then he’d never finish this coding. Lard Nar was annoying when he wanted to be and most the time that alien wanted to be. However, Zim had a feeling he’d sprinkle a little extra annoyance if Zim didn’t meet his deadline. If Zim thought he had a short patience when it came to putting up with stupidity when he was connected to the Brains then Irk help him because that fuse had only grown shorter!

Videos played on and off as Zim typed away, eyes focused on the monitor taking up the length of the wall in front of him. They had soon become background noise, a muffled nothing that Zim zoned out as he worked. Some of them had music, that gentle soft music box melody that Zim found he actually didn’t mind all that much. When someone *did* talk their voice was soft or baritone and went well with the topic of their video, which was usually Gir’s typical DIY.

His hands started to cramp and that’s when Zim had to lean back into the cushion of his seat for a break. As he flexed the fingers of his right hand he rubbed at his wrist with his left in hopes of ridding himself of the cramp sooner rather than later. A nice back rub would definitely help but he’d have to leave planet for any sort of useful massage and that was dangerous. How long had he been down here anyway? Three hours? It was so easy to lose track of time. He’d skipped breakfast in hopes of finishing the coding today but that feat wasn’t possible apparently. Seems testing was still a few days off.

Now that he wasn’t focused on the coding or distracted by checking in on Dib through ORA, the videos Gir was watching ceased their role as white noise. They took center stage now and for a moment Zim simply sat listening. He couldn’t place the music and no one was talking. Every so often Zim would side eye the little Unit just to make sure he was actually watching whatever it was that was playing on the screen.

Sure enough, Gir was focused on the video, his little legs swinging back and forth as they dangled off the edges of his chair. So maybe it was one of those videos that used text instead of a narrator? Odd. That didn’t seem like something Gir would have been interested in. Neither did narrations but Zim was willing to cut him some slack.

Switching to massage his left wrist as Zim continued to observe Gir from his seat, the video ended. That’s when Gir finally lifted his own little hand and started scrolling down the side bar. A moment of silence, a gentle tap, and he’d picked his next video. Only this music was far more familiar than any of the previous ‘Vines compilation’ videos from before.

//Duke’s Top 5: Real Ghost Sightings Caught On YooToob\\\

“Duke’s…” Zim’s hands lowered into his lap slowly as he focused on the name with knitted brow, the music droning on an extra second for added flare before the narrator began talking again.

//Not all ghost sightings are caught in abandoned buildings or darkened hallways. Sometimes they’re caught in unexpected places.\\\

Where had Zim heard this human before? Why did it give him a sense of nostalgia? Ghost sightings on YooToob… That was so paranormal it almost physically hurt. The only person he knew that would be into that would be-

“Duke’s!” Zim sat up quickly with a gasp and snatched the tablet out of Gir’s lap, the little Unit whining out a ‘hey’ in retaliation. Now he knew why this was so familiar. He had watched this person before! At skool during lunch, on one of those days that Dib and Gaz had decided to sit by him! This was one of many of Dib’s favorite YooToobers!

His right glove was ripped off hurriedly and thrown onto his keyboard with an audible thunk. It had likely typed some odd lines in between coding but Zim would worry about that later. Now he knew why these videos didn’t seem like Gir’s usual. They weren’t Gir’s playlist. He didn’t make this.

Zim collapsed the video much to Gir’s dismay. He backed all the way to YooToob’s homescreen where it listed suggested videos and none were of Gir’s typical pick. Ghost sightings, cryptids, aliens caught on tape. Dork5, Spanked Hog, Duke’s Top 5. No wonder Zim had felt an odd sense of nostalgia all day listening to the videos Gir was watching! The profile picture was a screengrab of the Swollen Eyeball logo. Gir’s profile was of himself in his dog costume and Minimoose. So this really was…?

The profile picture was tapped hesitantly and the username ‘AGENT_MOTHMAN_SE’ popped up in place of Gir’s own. So it was Dib’s YooToob that Gir was using. How had Gir even gained access? Dib didn’t remember his past so he couldn’t remember an old YooToob login.

Could he?

The tablet was handed over as Zim stood from his chair, the piece of furniture rolling off a ways from behind him due to the sheer force. With a finger on his temple ORA booted up a line of coding before welcoming him with her monotonous voice. Something weird was happening and he knew it, he just couldn’t find what. It had to be Dib, there was no other explanation, but what was it?

“Locate Mothman,” as Zim turned from the computer with glove in hand and stormed toward the elevator, ORA buzzed gently.

“_Location found. Kitchen._”

Strange. Dib didn’t spend an awful lot of time in the kitchen. When he did it was usually to wander down into the laboratory later to prod Zim into eating. Coupled with the fact that Zim hadn’t yet done so and hadn’t seen Dib at all today, it was weird. What was he doing in the kitchen if he wasn’t using it? Dib didn’t eat now. He could if he wanted to, just as Gir did, but there wasn’t a desire there and Zim never saw him attempt it.

Damn, how the tables have turned…

He ducked under the side table as it moved out of the way of the elevator, not waiting for either to come to a full stop. Computer muttered something about him needing to be careful with the elevator but he drowned it out in favor of scanning over the living room for anything odd. Like an overturned piece of furniture or signs of an intruder. Hell, even an old pizza box just laying around. Something that showed Dib had been here. A viable reason for him to be busy doing something.

When the effort came up fruitless, Zim gave a sigh and whirled around for the kitchen. His gait slowed, footsteps soft, as he entered. Dib was standing in front of the sink stoically, gaze fixated out of the window ahead of him. He didn’t move, not even after Zim had entered and took a couple of steps closer.

“Dib?” his voice was soft but commanding as he slowly began to close the distance between them, making purposeful noise so as not to startle the Android.

Still, the other didn’t move. Had ORA not informed him if Dib was in sleep mode or not? Had Dib entered it himself? As he inched closer, Zim brought up the coding quickly through ORA, glossing over it. He wasn’t. So Dib really was just standing there. Was he malfunctioning?

“Dib,” his voice was louder this time as he spoke, his hand reaching out to rest on the taller’s shoulder and shake it to garner some form of reaction, “Are you okay?”

Finally Dib blinked and his eyes shifted to glance at his reflection in the glass of the window. He didn’t speak, not yet, but their eyes locked. Ever since Dib had woken up, Zim had avoided eye contact with the Android. It felt odd now that Dib wasn’t truly Dib. But there were rare moments when Zim would, like now, and he’d see a glimpse of the old Dib in those eyes.

“I’m fine,” but that moment was brief and Dib’s voice had remained as monotonous as usual, “Why?”

Zim shoulders slumped as he rolled his eyes, removing his hand from Dib’s shoulder in favor of crossing his arms with a scoff, “That’s a serious question?? You were just standing here! Like in that one movie about that forest and that witch-“

“The Blair Witch Project?”

“...Yes.”

Once more their eyes locked, Zim’s own darkening in confusion. Maybe Gir had simply gotten Dib to watch the movie and that’s how Dib knew of it now. It’s not so much that he remembered it from his previous life, just that he had recently watched it. It was fresh, that’s what it was. He’d have to tell Gir to refrain from overloading Dib’s AI with unneeded information.

“Are you hungry?”

Dib’s voice caught his attention and his antenna twitched in interest at the mere thought. His spooch grumbled at the mention of food, bringing a soft blue blush to his face. So he nodded despite himself. Dib would likely diagnose it through ORA anyhow.

“Sure, Dib.”

“Me too!!”

“Gir, stop screaming…”


	5. The Brain Part One

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is a bit of a roller coaster and I apologize but Zim’s working through a lot of emotional baggage.
> 
> At least we have some humor!

“Why isn’t this frying the motherboard…?” Zim muttered lowly to himself as he slammed down on the backspace key in frustration before hitting the enter key once more to initiate the virus, “Probably because Skoodge told you to program it to fry the Control Brains but told you to test it on Earthen computers. Fucking moron…”

“Why don’t we go all the way to The Massive and ask the Tallies to hand us a Brain to test it on?”

Growing silent out of sheer surprise, Zim glanced over at Gir with an incredulous look plastered to his features. His mouth worked open and shut for a moment as he tried to form a response, internally battling with himself on whether he should explain to the Unit why that was a bad idea or not, before settling for, “How ‘bout no?”

“Awh, okay…”

Dib snorted softly from his own chair to the right of Zim, shoulders shaking slightly from his attempt at not outright laughing.

“Is it because you’re afraid they’d tell us ‘no’, Master?”

A sigh.

“What if we said ‘please’?”

“Gir.”

“Okay.”

But Gir did have a point. To test this virus properly they would need a motherboard from one of the Control Brains. How they would get one would be a feat and a half for sure but there would be absolutely no other way to test this virus. Zim’s deadline was fast approaching. While he could simulate it on a spare PAK, possibly, it wasn’t really ideal. Not to mention the fact he’d have to bait an Irken Mercenary to his base and kill them for that to work. It was honestly more trouble than was necessary.

“Maybe that abandoned smeetery on Hobo 9 still has an old Control Brain laying around…” because that would be convenient! And wouldn’t it be just like Red and Purple to leave something that important behind? Just laying around as if it were nothing? The idiots...

“Ooohhhh, we goin’ to space???”

“Wait,” perking finally from his spot, Dib spoke up, voice just slightly less monotonous than usual, “Are we?”

Zim’s eyes flickered to glance in Dib’s direction and for a moment he couldn’t bring himself to speak. He sounded honestly excited at the thought of going into space. By now, Dib had been desensitized to it. Both of them had traveled often enough together through their own battles, either against each other or together against someone else. Dib has seen the general gist of space first hand already. It hadn’t yet occurred to Zim that this Dib had no idea what space looked like from the other side of the O-zone layer.

“Would you,” he paused, clearing his throat as his face heated up a soft tint of blue, “Like to go with us, Dib? You could be of some use. I _did_ program defense measures into your AI after all~.”

“Hell yeah I’d like to go.”

It wasn’t quite the excitement **Dib** would have given him but it was damn close. The look in the Android’s eyes was enough to shatter and melt his squeedlyspooch all at once. Zim had missed when Dib felt passion for something regardless of what it was now. Hell, Dib could rant about zombie peanuts and Zim would have been happy because at least it was something. There were no more conspiracies, no more Mysterious Mysteries. Dib was merely existing by his side now. 

But this was still better than nothing.

“Yay!! I’ll get the snacks!!”

Gir’s swift movements forced his chair to rock back and forth in place as he hopped down to land on the cold metal flooring of the lab to jet for the elevator, the edge of it smacking against Zim’s own with a harsh clack. It took both of Zim’s hands to still the thing and he’d snarled softly in mild annoyance but even he knew they’d need food. He just didn’t want Gir’s food. His PAK no longer filtered poisons. One of the luxuries of being a Disconnected Irken, trademark pending. Somehow Dib had retained his mediocre ability to cook something remotely edible and Zim had since been eating whatever Dib made so long as it wasn’t oozing grease.

Working for Sizz-Lorr ruined quite a number of foods for him…

“Dib-stink-“

“Way ahead of you,” Dib was already out of his seat by the time Zim was turning to fix him with a stare he hoped was more commanding than nostalgic and Dib shot him a smirk, “Gir broke the card reader for the medic bay, remember? Can’t have you eating just anything. I’d have to send a transmission to Skoodge.”

“Urgh,” with a shudder and a fake gag, Zim whipped around to face his work desk once more, “Vile Skoodge. Tired of him…”

“Yeah, yeah. You say that every time he sends a transmission request but you still accept them,” the smirk Dib wore deepened knowingly, smugly, as Zim craned his neck to give the Android a glare.

“Enough talk! Food making! Vamonos!” finger extended, Zim shooed Dib in the general direction of the still opened elevator where Gir waved excitedly as Dib rolled his eyes and turned on his heel to saunter away from the Irken.

As Dib’s form retreated to join Gir in the elevator, Zim pretended to begin cleaning up when in reality he was waiting for the elevator to ascend up into the top level of the base. Dib and he would talk from time to time when they needed to before but that was the most casual conversation they’d had since Dib had been first serviced. It was confusing and just the slightest bit alarming. 

Humans made movies all the time about AI gaining free thought and independence. They feared what would happen when a more powerful being such as an AI, something smarter and stronger than their pitiful existence, grew sentience. That was Skoodge’s fear when Zim had first proposed this idea. Of course, Skoodge had many other alarming concerns accompanying the project but that was one of his top three complaints.

Was it possible for Dib’s AI to simulate the old Dib? Zim had downloaded Dib’s consciousness into the Android in hopes they would intigrate but it hadn’t occurred to him until now that it was a high possibility that quite the opposite could happen. That instead of integration and a probability of Dib returning, the AI could just read the coding and mimic him? 

A whoosh caught his attention and Zim looked back up in time to see the elevator rise up quickly and disappear into the ceiling and coiling wires above.

“Computer?” his voice was soft as he spoke, eyes still trained at the spot where the elevator had vanished for a moment longer until Computer answered with a small sigh.

“Yes, Master?”

“Would it be possible-“

“For Dib’s AI to run a simulation of Dib’s consciousness to trick you into believing that Dib’s back in order to put you into a false sense of security before horribly murdering you and overriding the base? Yes.”

“...oh…”

“But,” he continued after a brief pause, obviously relishing in the slight shiver of fear and disappointment that had shot down Zim’s spine, “he’d have to override the firewall I have around his consciousness first and I’ve been watching it. That hasn’t happened yet. We’d at least be alerted first.”

He opted not to tack on the incredibly unsure ‘maybe’ at the end. It wasn’t entirely foolproof.

“..._oh_. That was smart. I mean, I am Zim, I could have thought of that myself I was just eeehhh,” Zim waved a hand dismissively in the air as he tried to think of the right word or phrase to describe what he was trying to say even if he _hadn’t_ been the one to think of it.

“Rushing, yes I know,” there was a distinct sound to Computer’s voice that could have been indicative of an eye roll but Zim ignored it in favor of the prospect that maybe Computer actually had some insight that he didn’t for once, “however I do believe what we are experiencing is a breach. Don’t quote me on it though, I don’t have all the answers.”

“A breach…” of Dib’s consciousness. That would make _some_ sense. It was only small things. Little meaningless and mundane things that Dib remembered from his previous life. YooToob logins, television show airings, what Gir’s favorite food was three years ago, that Minimoose really liked being scratched behind his left ear. None of it made sense as singular occurrences but together it was almost...obvious? 

Zim would have to test it to be sure. Just because they had a theory that didn’t make it law. So long as Dib’s AI had yet to access his consciousness then they were a-okay! He didn’t have anything to worry about!

“Well then, so long as we’re not about to live out the plot of...of…”

“I, Robot?”

“That, yes! We have nothing to worry about!” Zim hopped from his seat, slipping his lab coat from his shoulders as he began his trek toward the elevator, “Besides, ORA can override his AI anyhow~! All I’d have to do is put him in sleep mode!”

Computer groaned lowly as he brought the elevator back down for Zim to climb into, “Yup. You got me there.”

“Of course I do. I am Zim~!”

Was the elevator moving faster than normal or was that just Zim feeling like it was? Computer couldn’t be that tired of him already, they’d barely talked! The jackass. And to think they’d gone a whole month without a single argument! His henchmen really has some nerve to them.

It didn’t matter. He had places to be anyway. With that deadline right around the corner the rush was just as much for him as it was for Computer. Neither he nor Computer were very fond of the calls from Lard Nar. Not that they were reminiscent of any of the calls with Red and Purple or anything. They were just annoying. And the whole reason for being disconnected and joining The Resisty was to stop living under someone else’s rule anyway. 

Until Skoodge buttered both him and Dib up and convinced them both the best way to keep Earth and Zim safe was to join a resistance movement. A whole lot of good that ended up doing… 

“And sometimes there’s big floating rocks and stars that go whoosh right by the window!”

“Oh yeah?”

“Yup! Sometimes Master even lets me fly the Cruiser!”

“No way.”

As Zim exited the elevator with lab coat in hand, his eyes fell on Gir and Dib as they chattered away in front of the large monitor. Dib was clearly humoring Gir but something in his eyes said he seemed at least half interested in what the little Unit had to say and Zim couldn’t help the small smile that quirked at his lips. Gir was always happy and that was just a fact. Something exciting was always going on in Gir’s little part of the world.

But when Dib had died… It had devastated Zim, damn near broke him. For a whole week it had rendered Gir entirely mute. An extra week after, when Dib was brought online, Gir had been wary of him, on edge even. To see this? It almost made things seem just the littlest bit normal.

Lab coat discarded on the couch, Zim grabbed for the old black trench coat of Dib’s that was draped across the back of it, the one he barely touched unless he had to go out. Usually it was for errands. A quick run to the store and back or a quick fly to the moon. This was farther though and it seemed vastly more appropriate. Almost like **Dib **would truly be there with him. 

He’d never admit that wearing it helped him feel better. At least, not out loud.

“Nyah?”

Trench coat half on, Zim turned to spy Minimoose floating down towards him and he lifted a hand out for him to land on, allowing the little thing to brush up against his cheek, “We’re about to leave, yeah.”

“Nyah?!”

“Of course you can vaporize any Irken Mercenary that breaks in while we’re gone, Minimoose!” Zim cooed, scratching just under Minimoose’s chin gently.

“Nyah~!”

Even if he were fairly confident in Computer’s ability to keep the base somewhat safe, how could he tell Minimoose no? Poor thing was damn near vibrating with excitement at just the thought! And a patrol wouldn’t hurt anyway, right? They wouldn’t be gone for too long and Minimoose was capable enough. Things would be fine! So long as no one knocked on the door…

Dib had more uses than his height advantage. Realizing the little girl selling candy wasn’t an Irken Invader in disguise was one of those uses.

“Computer,” allowing Minimoose to lounge on top of his head now instead, Zim adjusted his coat and sweater as he spoke, ignoring the sigh coming from the rafters, “to the Cruiser!”

“Yeah, sure.”

The floor shifted below the three, tiles breaking off from the rest of the collective as it rose into the air toward the ceiling. Coils parted to reveal the smooth underside of the roof before it opened like a set of jagged teeth to allow the platform carrying them to enter the maw and the bay that held the Cruiser, fitting the living room puzzle piece into its mouth perfectly. Lights clicked on simultaneously in the room, illuminating the maroon colored spacecraft in an almost foreboding and ominous manner. It sat against the sleek grey metal work of the flooring, its colors standing out a stark contrast to the rest of the room as Zim nearly jumped at the vehicle with joy, arms outstretched.

When was the last time he had properly flown? With anyone? A good few months, he’d say. It wasn’t as if he could simply hop in and take her out for a joy ride! She wasn’t an Earthen car. People wouldn’t look the other way upon seeing her, she was not only superior Irken technology but for the mere fact alone that she was alien technology would have Earth’s populace turning their heads. Among all of the things he was protective over - Gir, Minimoose, Computer, Dib - his Cruiser had always been his baby. She _was_ his only ride off of this miserable ball of dirt, after all. Without her, the rest of them were stranded.

“Does he always hug his ship?”

“Iunno.”

Zim trained a glare toward Dib and Gir as they muttered between themselves, Minimoose by now having floated off on his own as he settled beside his Cruiser and crossed his arms about his chest, “What was that? Do I hear the sounds of two of my henchmen mocking me?”

“Me? Mocking you?” Dib tilted his head to the side innocently, much like a cat, and furrowed his brows in confusion, “I would never.”

“You both suck,” as if to emphasize his words, the cockpit of his Cruiser opened up with a flourish and he was the first to hop in, settling with a satisfied purr as his antenna twitched happily, “Now, get in.”

“Oh. I was half expecting a Mean Girls reference.”

“...”

“No?”

“I am appalled that you would even dare to compare the likes of I, the far superior Zim, to that disgusting human filth,” Zim spat, his eyes narrowing as he assisted Gir in climbing up and into his own little spot in the cockpit before his voice was lowering just an octave as he spoke again, “Now. Get in, loser.”

Dib _was_ climbing into the cockpit and ignoring Zim’s less than spectacular attitude. He’d grown accustomed to it by now, having been working under his alien master for about a month was it? Until that last sentence caught his attention and he paused for but a moment, right hand gripping the edge of the cockpit where glass met metal and left foot planted on a thruster as he was in the process of boosting himself up. A small smile quirked his lips as their eyes locked genuinely for what seemed like the first time.

“We’re going shopping.”

“Hell yeah,” the smile only widened as Dib hopped in and settled himself beside Zim who quirked his own slight smile in return as the glass of the cockpit lowered down around them, “How do you know about Mean Girls anyway?”

“Gir loves teen romcoms,” Zim answered smoothly as he adjusted a few minor settings and the roof of the base opened up to reveal the darkened night sky looming up ahead, “One night last year we binge watched a marathon on television.”

“Suuuure did!!”

“How do _you_ know about it?” as the Cruiser lifted into the air slowly with a quiet hum, the thrusters pointed downwards to keep their momentum even, Zim side eyed the Android beside him.

The answer didn’t come easy. In fact, for a good moment it didn’t come at all. Dib even stammered, showcasing a bout of nervousness - something Zim wouldn’t have programmed into him no matter how Dib-like it was. He fidgeted a little, a hand coming up to card through his hair as he thought long and hard, searching his memory bank for how on Earth he had come up with that memory.

“I don’t know, actually…”

Zim made a noise in the back of his throat, a dismissive clear of his vocal chords as he took control of the Cruiser and began driving upwards into the stars, “Gir likely made you watch it.”

“Maybe!” Gir supplied from the other side of Zim happily albeit distractedly as he was far too busy sightseeing the same stars he’s seen time and time again.

“Your CPU or ORA could have deleted enough of the memory to make room for something else and you retained enough to hold a conversation about it,” he shrugged, trying to keep his eyes on the clouds ahead of him.

“Maybe,” Dib’s voice was soft and uncertain as his top teeth worried at his bottom lip and he finally turned his head to look at Zim, “But don’t you control ORA?”

“Yes,” Zim nodded, his hold on the steering wheel slackening just the slightest, “but what I see through her are lines of codes or encrypted files unless downloaded otherwise.”

“Oh…”

A cold silence settled between them as Zim exited the Earth’s atmosphere. Stars twinkled between melting hues of blues, purples, and navy black. Among the backdrop of galaxies and nebulas sat a span of Earth’s satellites that Zim flew by without blinking an eye, the moon glaring a soft white into the cockpit of the Cruiser’s glass.

“Want to learn how to fly?”

Zim’s voice startled him. Not enough to make him jump but enough to make him damn near break his neck as he spun to look at the other, “What?”

“Fly,” Zim repeated as he punched the button for autopilot, the Cruiser announcing it was entering the state aloud so Zim could look at Dib properly, “Want to learn to fly?”

“Fly the Cruiser? You mean you’re actually letting me?” Dib’s brows knit together in confusion but he sat up regardless, already preparing himself to switch seats with the Irken.

With a roll of his eyes, Zim moved first as he scooted his way into Dib’s lap, pushing the Android into his spot quickly, “Zim would not have suggested it if I weren’t serious. Now go.”

“Oh, okay, wow. Just like that.”

“It’ll lurch once you hit off-“ his words were cut short as Dib prematurely smashed the autopilot button, disengaging the function and forcing Zim to grab hold of the console before he went flying into the glass of the cockpit much like Gir had just done himself, “of autopilot…”

“Sorry…”

“That was fun!!!”

With an almost fond sigh, Zim grabbed hold of Gir and pulled him close to himself, situating the Unti in his lap, “Keep your hands at four and eight. My commander tried to teach me it was two and seven but, _pah_. That’s probably why he’s dead and I’m not.”

Dib snorted then, his hands slipping down the smooth surface of the wheel and into Zim’s proper position, “Commander?”

“Mhm,” flicking a control located on the dash labeled ‘cruise’ with his finger, Zim sat back in his spot to better watch Dib, eyes roaming the other’s profile in silence for a time simply studying the other, “We had to learn to fly exactly like him because that was the _right_ way to do it.”

Another more humorous snort left Dib as he slowly began to relax in his seat and the hold he had on the steering wheel grew lax, “Sounds annoying.”

“You don’t know the half of it,” Zim’s voice was soft and distant as he kept his eyes on the Android beside him, “Keep your eyes straight ahead, don’t look down. This isn’t like driving an Earthen car, there’s no road to pay attention to.”

“Yeah, I got it,” even if his voice had wavered just slightly and made Zim’s squeedlyspooch ache at the sound, “Just, weird looking down and seeing nothing.”

“You said that the first time too.”

“The first time?” Dib made a move to look away but refrained as Zim nudged his hip with his knee and Dib forced himself to keep his eyes forward, “What first time?”

“Don’t worry about it.”

Zim tried not to allow himself to get caught up in moments such as these for that reason alone. It was already hard enough to explain to the Android how they knew each other and why he came to be, Zim having to create a story on the fly as to why Dib’s existence was needed. With every little bit of his Dib the Android experienced and leaked, the easier it was to allow himself to be swept away. It was easier to be caught up in memories because that’s where his Dib was now.

A small and rueful sigh escaped him as he tore his gaze away from Dib and directed it then out the window as Gir ‘ooh’d and ‘ahh’d from his lap. Nothing but the same stars and galaxies. How could he let himself do this? Get caught up in something that wasn’t there any longer? Dib was already confused after the week’s past events and Zim letting himself get carried away wasn’t going to help matters. If it further worsened things, if it compromised Dib’s AI and he lost the last shred of the human he had left-

“Zim, is that it?”

Dib’s voice caught his attention and he reluctantly turned to face in the direction Dib motioned to, spying the shimmering, swirling warp hole a handful of meters away out the front of the cockpit. With a few adjustments to Gir, Zim sat up and scooched closer to Dib, their shoulders brushing from the movement, “Mhm. The Resisty set these things up so…”

“Ah,” he huffed in understanding, driving the Cruiser a scant few inches closer in hesitation as he gripped the wheel hard enough to turn his knuckles white, “so drive carefully is what you’re saying?”

“Please. You and I both know how reliable Resisty tech is…”

“Yup…”


	6. The Brain Part Two

_Lifeless. A word that used to carry little meaning for the type of lifestyle he led. Taking over a planet and handing it over to his race’s leaders typically meant its inhabitants were all dead anyhow. He never put much thought into the meaning of the word. Or used the word in general. It was never a variable for him._

_ Until Earth. Until things started to matter and other things started to matter less. Certain people grew close to him and others farther away.  _

_ And now, here he sat. In a pool of his own blood, holding Dib in his lap. Lifeless. The one word he could never fathom would ever describe the human. It was hard to comprehend, to connect the two together. So easy to stare at Dib and think ‘he’s sleeping’ as humans often did. That is until Zim swipes at the blood positively pouring from the raven haired boy’s slackened mouth. And nose.  _

_ And, oh Irk, even his ears… _

_ Red’s voice had soon melted into background noise through the speakers of Computer as Zim’s entire focus was taken up by trying to piece together how he could fix this. What he could do to reverse this. Everything was fuzzy and it was hard to see out of his right eye for whatever reason… It was becoming increasingly harder to concentrate as black itched at the edges of his vision. As Dib’s cold, lifeless eyes bore into him almost pleading. _

_Now Zim could see the human’s far darker blood mixing into his own on the cold metal flooring of his laboratory. What an interesting color that makes._

“Zim.”

He jolted awake at the sound of Dib’s deep voice, eyes popping open quickly as a sharp gasp left him. His vision darted around the cockpit of the Cruiser, unfocused and hurried for a moment before he zeroed in on Dib at the wheel, a look of worry and confusion contorting the Android’s face. A tired and frustrated groan left him, his left hand coming up to rub at his eyes as his right arm tightened around a still sleeping Gir in his lap.

Damn dream… He hadn’t had that one in a while. Must be the stress of the situation he’s found himself in as of late.

“Are you okay…?” Dib’s voice was laced with far less worry than his expression led on but that was likely due to the AI more than choice, “I didn’t mean to scare you.”

A small snort escaped him as he adjusted in his seat, taking extra precautions not to wake Gir up just yet, “Zim doesn’t scare that easy,” though he winced at how raw and exhausted his voice sounded. Maybe he should try and get more sleep…

“Okay,” though he had laughed, even shot a smile in Zim’s direction as the Irken settled beside him, that worried look never truly left Dib’s gaze even as he looked away and out of the glass of the cockpit to motion toward the slate brown planet orbiting in front of them, “Is this the place?”

“Unfortunately. Move over,” Zim dumped Gir into Dib’s lap so he could use both of his hands to shoo the Android out of his spot before taking the wheel himself.

The switch labeled cruise made an audible click as Zim disengaged it and took control of the Cruiser, flying closer to the planet’s atmosphere before breaking and entering its O-zone. Rotten, graying clouds dispersed as he barreled through them head on in his descent on the small planet, eyes quickly scanning what little surface he could see at their distance for what he was searching for.

Very little buildings remained of the Irken populace that once thrived on this planet. If ‘thrived’ is what he could call it. It wasn’t so much a living as it was simply a state of being. They were kept around to keep after the smeets and they only required one building for that. One building housed the worker drones, the lone Control Brain, and the smeetery. Once the facility became obsolete and was no longer needed, everyone moved on. The planet was left to its own devices. Life carries on for the rest of Irk.

It wasn’t hard finding the building with as little vegetation that grew on planets such as this one. It didn’t house any organic life, no animals or intelligent life forms and certainly no plants. Nothing grew here so there was nothing to reclaim the land once the facility was left to rot. It stood tall amongst the dusty horizon just not proudly. Actually, it was crumbling and that was pretty fitting as well considering what was left inside because it soon would follow suit. So long as Zim could get it to work, that is.

“That’s a smeetery…?” there was the tiniest tinge of awe in Dib’s voice as he leaned forward in his seat to snatch a better look at the building as Zim flew closer, eyes darting from one end of the building to the other as if committing every inch to memory. He probably was, it was extremely possible for him to catalog his visual feed for later if he found it important enough. 

Though, Zim didn’t have time to conduct his own crazy conspiracies so he instead nodded, scanning the loading bay for a relatively clean landing space, “Not as impressive as it could be but yes. This is a smeetery.”

“Huh,” Dib huffed out as he adjusted Gir in his lap, the little Unit stretching and yawning as the Cruiser jostled from the attempt at a decent landing on sketchy ground, “I assumed it would look more like a human hospital.”

“Please,” a hand was waved dismissively as Zim cut the engine, his eyes rolling flippantly, “smeets aren’t born the same as human filth. And we take slightly less care once we’re ‘birthed’.”

Dib hummed his acknowledgement, watching as Zim hopped from the Cruiser and allowing Gir to follow suit before he made a move of his own. Questions burned in the back of his CPU but he wasn’t sure why he wanted to ask them, not readily anyway. Maybe he was simply curious. Zim wasn’t exactly an open book unless Dib happened to catch him monologuing or ranting. Even then, Zim shut himself off quick if he thought he was prone to saying too much. At first he wanted to chalk it up to instinct, a want to get to know the Irken and grow closer to him - they _were_ living together after all - but even that didn’t settle right. Why would he have that instinct? It wasn’t as if he had taken to playing twenty questions with Zim before this trip.

“Gir, stay close,” the words were laced with authority as Zim took another quick scan of the loading bay while he waited for Dib to join him at his side, the sound of the cockpit’s glass closing signifying Dib had at least climbed out of the Cruiser, “I may have need of you.”

“Sir, yes, sir!” saluting as his entire body went rigid, Gir faced the pair as the blue lighting of his chassis and eyes shifted red but only momentarily before he was giggling and running head long for the main double doors at the front of the loading bay.

From beside him, Dib gave a snort of his own, hands stuffed into the pockets of his jeans casually, “That was short lived.”

“You have no idea…”

The pair followed behind but at a vastly slower pace to allow Gir a moment to explore near the door. Zim motioned to the desk to the left of the door, explaining that was where scientists not of the jurisdiction had to sign in for their passes just to enter, the surface of the blackened sleek metal covered in six inches of dust that was visible at just a glance. Another, less grandiose door laid to the right, hidden away in an alcove that Zim explained away as the supplies door. Simple drones would use that door to travel to and from the loading bay to the back rooms in order to refill supplies such as snacks for the scientists and doctors or various medical supplies when needed. It may not have been a human hospital but, so far, it sounded like it functioned very much like a human hospital.

Swiping at the table with a gloved hand and an obvious disgusted look on his features, Zim dusted the desk down before lifting himself onto the surface gracefully, landing on the other side without a sound. His eyes scanned over the lower portion of the desk, Dib lifting Gir up onto his shoulders so the pair could peer over to spy at what Zim was looking at, as the Irken moved pen holders and broken tablets out of his way. For a place that was apparently abandoned, Zim was trying his damnedest to be awful stealthy.

“What are you looking for?” Dib spoke up finally but kept his voice low, his eyes trailing down the desk as if he could find whatever it was Zim was in search of without the Irken telling him.

“Remember what I said about sign in?” Zim’s own eyes flickered up quickly to meet with Dib’s as they locked for but a moment until Zim resumed moving nicknacks and unmounted keyboards out of his way, “To get through the main door we need a Scientist key card.”

“Don’t you need to sign in for that?”

The tablet Zim had been holding fell with a thump from his grip onto the desk below him as he directed an unimpressed stare toward Dib, a small growl rumbling in his chest, “Cute.”

“I think so.”

“What if we just break the door down?” Gir waved both arms in the air, garnering the attention of Zim and Dib immediately as he spoke in a surprisingly hushed voice, catching on quick that the pair were being silent as well, “I can do it!”

“No, Gir. We need to be quiet,” but Zim was quick to reprimand, eyes narrowing at the Unit before he was resuming in his search of the desk, opening drawers with a smooth click.

“Awwhh… But I wanna see it go boom…”

With his arms rested on the surface of the sign in desk, Dib looked away from Zim to study the large double doors they were searching for a way around. They were easily twelve feet tall and twenty feet in diameter. Probably made of some thick material as well, the metal used in the desk he was leaning on only looked flimsy but he could feel how strong it was just by leaning against it. If they were going to blast those doors open it might take more than what Gir has to do so. The Cruiser likely had what they needed but that would have been louder than Zim was prepared to get. 

But again, if this place was abandoned why did that matter? So what if they were loud? So what if they blew up a couple of doors? No one was here to stop them. No one was going to check on the noise.

“Zim-“

“Ahha,” the laugh was silent and huffed but dripping with victory as Zim hopped up from his crouched position and held a Scientist’s card high in the air above his head in triumph, “Couldn’t hide from Zim for long~.”

A fond smile curled Dib’s lips as he watched Zim climb back over the desk, tablets crunching under the Irken’s boots. At first he *had* lifted a hand to help Zim down, almost on instinct but stopped himself as confusion set in. While he was always helpful with Zim, he knew the Irken wasn’t help**less** and Zim would likely smack the hand away sooner than he would accept it. Where was this need coming from?

With a thump, Zim landed beside him, wrapping the cloth necklace of the card around his hand to keep a better hold as Gir attempted to reach down for a grab at it himself, “Through this door is the smeetery and beyond that is the Control Brain.”

“Stay close to me. The smeetery is large. It was used to house billions of smeets at once so it isn’t exactly small,” as if the size of the building wasn’t visual representation enough but Gir needed things spelled out for him sometimes.

The thought crossed Dib’s mind that it was likely the card wouldn’t read and judging by the expression on Zim’s face, he thought so too. It was possible that the Tallest had the forethought to cut the power to the entire building before abandoning it just to keep whatever they had left inside safe just in case they forgot something. Dib didn’t know an awful lot about them admittedly but they were leaders for a reason. Zim didn’t talk about them all too highly but they couldn’t be that stupid.

//BEEP\\\

...Nevermind.

The doors opened inwards, sliding into the walls with audible groans as the mechanisms churned against dust and years of disuse. Old papers and dried mud flew outwards toward them as stale air rolled from inside the building, cool and almost damp, palpable even. The hall that stretched ahead of them was dark and only illuminated by the light of the sun that shined behind them, their shadows stretching inwards into the darkness before disappearing and melting with the rest of the nothingness.

At first the walls were empty. Simple, gray colored metal as far as the eye could see. Their footfalls echoed and reverberated against them as they walked deeper into the length of hall, Zim leading the charge and easily walking five paces ahead. Soon the smooth surface of the walls were disturbed by a series of circular dots that began to line the walls. From top to bottom, floor to ceiling, they were everywhere on either side. Small, bioluminescent lighting shimmered behind each one dimly, a light red as the little face (Dib was guessing) adorning the front lit up in the same color. Did that mean they were empty? Or not in use at least?

They lit up the hall, giving the walls and flooring a faint red glow as they walked. Gir ooh’d from his spot atop Dib’s shoulders, reaching out to poke and prod at a few in hopes they might open only to pout as nothing happened. Considering every single one of them were glowing red Dib didn’t have high hopes that any of them would. Hopefully it didn’t mean that whatever was inside had been left to die and rot…

“Zim,” now that he was thinking about it however, “these things on the wall, what are they?”

“Pods. They birth the smeet. If there’s a red light then that means they’re empty,” his answer was short and his voice was soft. Zim didn’t even turn around to give Dib a glance as he answered, focused on his own steps as his antenna were held high in concentration.

Dib gave a small relieved sigh regardless, his eyes leaving Zim’s back to gloss over the pods along the wall once more, “So, nothing’s inside rotting away?”

“**No**, Dib-beast,” Zim snarled, whirling around to face the Android finally with a sneer, “Why are you so concerned anyhow??”

He blinked in confusion as he took three steps back, distancing himself from Zim and the Irken’s own angry confusion. Honestly, he wasn’t so sure why he felt the way he did. It shouldn’t bother him and the feeling alone was a passing concern. More of a curiosity and an intent to help if they ever found one that wasn’t empty. But anything more than that? Dib didn’t have an answer. He just knew what the feeling was.

“I uhm,” he stuttered, his eyes flickering from the wall and back to Zim a handful of times and Gir reached for another pod with an outstretched hand, “I was just… You know, we could take it home. And junk. For...science?”

Zim’s eyes narrowed at first as he studied Dib, eyes searching the Android up and down before he was lifting a brow, “A smeet? We could take a smeet home?”

“Yeah, I mean,” with a shrug of his shoulders, soft so as to not disturb Gir who was still perched there, Dib looked around the hall again, “why not? It wouldn’t hurt.”

For a moment all Zim could do was stare at the Android as his eyes flickered over Dib’s face in pure confusion and obvious shock. His arms lifted and crossed about his chest as he contemplated what to say, trying to fully grasp what it was Dib was actually getting at. Where was this coming from? This was so Dib-like that it hurt. In fact, this was the most Dib thing the Android had said since he’d been serviced.

“We’re gonna take home a baby?!”

“No, Gir.”

“Awwhh…”

“And be quiet,” Zim shushed, hissing the words low below his usual range of voice as his arms remained crossed for a moment longer, “We’re only here for the Brain, that’s it.”

“But you looooove takin’ care o’ stuff!!” The little Unit whined as he draped himself over Dib’s head dramatically, arms dangling on either side like two floppy ears.

As he turned from the pair, Zim groaned in frustration but opted for blissful ignorance otherwise. True, the prospect of checking the pods was tempting. Well, maybe ‘tempting’ was the right word to describe how he had been feeling about what Dib was proposing, but it was close enough. Zim wasn’t sure of his own true feelings on raising a smeet but he knew deep down he wouldn’t mind a couple. Or more. But taking one from this smeetery could be dangerous. He wasn’t entirely sure what alarms were live and what weren’t. They were already taking their liberties as it were.

If they wasted time by checking the tens to thousands of smeet pods that lined the billions of halls, and if they found a single smeet left over, what then? It would need a PAK. Said PAK would need to be activated. Dib and he had already built one PAK from scratch, the one he was wearing, but could they do so for a smeet? The process sounded far more tedious… It would be so tiny...

Light peered in from the end of the hall as it opened up to a large circular control room. The ceiling was made of stained maroon glass, peering down over the Control Brain as it sat dormant looming above them in the rafters. Coils and wires hung loosely from its bottom, connecting it to the lone keyboard and the controls at the base nearest the floor at typical Irken Scientist height. Dust settled over every surface, thicker here than in the foyer and loading bay. Brown and decayed, discoloring the usual pristine sheet metal of the Irken Elite.

“Fitting,” Zim spat before taking a step forward.

His footsteps echoed in the large room, vibrating off of the bare walls and bouncing from what little furniture there was. The single control chair was overturned on its side, crashed to the floor. Whoever had left this room had left in a hurry, likely to not be left behind. Had Irkens been left behind? This building was massive, it could have been possible.

“This thing is huge,” Dib whispered from his spot beside Zim, taking his own silent steps to stay in line with the Irken, “It’s easily the size of a bull’s head.”

“Bull’s head!”

“And roughly weighs more. Quiet, Gir!”

“How do we get it down?”

“If we’re lucky the controls are still live.”

“And if they aren’t?”

“You can climb up there and cut it down, Dib-beast.”

“Yeah, I guess…”

“Just have to make sure it doesn’t fall-“

Something slithered up his leg. That wasn’t an odd phantom sensation, something slithered up his leg and he was sure of it. Zim glanced down quickly, the words he was about to speak dying on his tongue as he eyed himself critically. Nothing was there, no sign he had been touched, but he knew he’d felt something. Gir hadn’t moved from Dib’s shoulders and Dib was too tall to sneak a feel such as that. Organic life had never inhabited this planet and they had never tried bringing any here in an attempt to sustain life. There were no snakes or reptiles. So what was it?

The wind was suddenly ripped from him as something hard and metal wrapped around his waist and hoisted him into the air. He kicked and clawed at the appendage, a computer coil he now recognized, as he wiggled in its grasp in an attempt to gain freedom. Its hold tightened, Zim’s own grasp of the scientist card slipping as it fell to the metal flooring below with a soft tink. Dib whirled around in his spot, too shocked to act as another, slighter connector fell from the rafters and connected itself to Zim’s PAK. A pained wheeze left the Irken, Zim immediately losing the will to fight as the Control Brain in front of them spurred to life, light illuminating a deep red.

//Rogue Irken, you are trespassing\\\

“Son of a-“ Zim gasped, attempting a weak wiggle, antenna pressed flat against his head.

//You are not connected and are therefore a danger to this facility, I must eradicate you\\\

A loud sizzle reverberated off the dusty walls as Zim’s PAK sparked. His back arched as he cried out in pain, sparks rolling from his PAK in waves. They rolled from his shoulders and over the metal of the coil around him, landing on the floor and bouncing twice before dying out. The room flashed in colors of blue and gold, the lights of his PAK strobing in panic as Zim himself tried once more to wiggle and kick his way to freedom only for the coil around his waist to tighten around him.

“Zim-!”

“No!” a hand shot out to stop Dib in his tracks as the Android made a move to run for his aid, Zim’s face contorted in pain as he narrowed his eyes at Dib. ORA was malfunctioning, lines of code and breaks in his vision scrambled across icky grained film. He was surprised Dib had listened, “It can’t sense you, not yet! You have to disconnect it! Keep Gir safe!”

“Wha- The hell am I even supposed to do?!” Dib ground out in frustration, turning to glare at the console set before him almost ominously. His translator flashed as he took the one step he needed to situate himself in front of the keyboard and he scanned over the various buttons that lay there. Even with the translation he had no sweet clue what he should be doing.

“Emergency override!”

Override? What buttons were those? What would it be on a normal computer? Dib’s eyes flickered over the keyboard quickly, scanning every button and studying every odd symbol. If only he had time to relish in the fact that he could read the strange language right now. Some part of him knew this, he could feel it. It was reaching, clawing its way to the surface the longer he sat here staring and doing absolutely nothing. Zim’s pained cries weren’t helping. His protect protocols were demanding him to abandon this objective and to override the command Zim had given him but he stood fast.

“Right, okay… Just fucking focus…”

He knew Earthen computers. They couldn’t be that much different, right? What other overrides could there be? 

But, hadn’t he hacked Irken consoles before? Zim’s own Computer even? A long time ago, he had to have. A warm summer night, the stars were out and twinkling, the sky had been surprisingly clear. He remembered hunkering down in Zim’s backyard, hidden away behind the surprisingly clean trash cans with his laptop and overriding Zim’s consoles. He wasn’t sure where that memory had come from but…

Strokes unsure and even hesitant, Dib began typing the pattern he could remember as it popped into his head. He wasn’t entirely positive where the information was coming from and couldn’t pinpoint the feeling of absolute failure he could sense dredging up in the pits of his chest. The keys clacked under his fingers softly but it wasn’t near loud enough to drown out Zim’s pained whimpers behind him nor the sizzling sparks he could still see flying in his peripheral.

A small mechanical thunk caught his attention and Dib looked up in time to see a casing had opened up, revealing a small important looking button. It hovered over the keyboard with ‘disengage’ written in raised black Irken lettering across the smooth surface.

“Hit that now!”

“Right,” he was going to, he sort of connected the dots the moment the word ‘disengage’ registered but he didn’t have the heart to sass Zim so instead he punched the button inwards as hard as he could.

A loud whir sounded from inside the large console as the lights inside the Control Brain died down before blinking off in a succession of threes. Gir whimpered as his little hands curled into Dib’s hair, his eyes shifting from the Brain to Zim and back in debate. It shifted on its stand with a loud and audible metallic groan, tilting forward then back before forward once more. It was going to fall. Zim was going to fall!

“Gir, catch the Brain!”

“Yes, sir!” 

As soon as Gir was hopping from his shoulders, Dib pushed himself away from the console with force. His boots beat against the metal of the flooring as he watched the coil lose its grip on Zim, his body now limp and lifeless. The connector popped from his PAK and Zim was in free fall towards the hard ground. Dib didn’t have time to think about the state of his PAK because if Zim crashed to the floor they’d have far more problems to worry about than some broken coding.

He skidded to a stop, boots scuffing the metal below him as Dib held his arms out just in time to catch Zim. Under the pure velocity of the fall, Dib had almost fell to his knees as he’d caught Zim, cradling the Irken in his arms gently and holding him close to his chest. A protectiveness flared deep within him and his hold tightened as he looked down on the other. Zim’s antenna were vibrating in obvious pain, his body lax and limp in Dib’s arms. This was bad. This was very bad, Dib didn’t know how to fix this.

“Shit!” he hissed venomously as he adjusted his hold on the other, only looking away as Gir came trotting up beside him with the Brain held high, “Gir, we gotta go, now. Make sure to keep up.”

Gir likely would have saluted and Dib had even seen his hand twitch with the urge to do so but he refrained in order to keep a better hold on the Brain. He nodded sharply in confidence toward Dib before bouncing in the air, “Charge, Mary!”

Thank God for Gir. Dib shot him a strained smile before looking down at Zim one last time in worry, hugging the unconscious Irken close to his chest, “Just hang on, Zim. I got you.”

* * *

I usually put this in a not but I gotta share this for people who don’t follow my Tumblr! I’m so excited!! I don’t know when exactly it was drawn because I’m horrible at checking stuff, I don’t get asks or submissions ever so this really surprised me when I saw it and I’m super happy!! Chapter one got FANART!!! This is seriously a first!!

<https://omegainthesheets.tumblr.com/post/188497735740/wisp-of-rain-i-made-a-comic-beacouse-i-need-the>


	7. The Brain Part Three

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter took me so long and I don’t even know why! I kept getting distracted by a whole bunch of things... I literally have the attention span of a carrot. I’m so sorry, guys! But, it’s here! Yay!
> 
> I’m sorry...

As soon as the Cruiser’s thrusters met the metal flooring of the base’s loading bay with a thunk, Dib was jumping out with Zim’s prone form limp in his arms barely before the cockpit had time to open. The roof closed behind them, quickly at first but the mechanism caught and eased it into position before locking and bathing the room in bleak darkness. With audible clicks, the lights flashed on to illuminate and bathe the area in stark white just as Gir was trotting up to his side, worry etched on his own features. Dib’s heart was racing, pumping the coolant in his veins at a rushed and frantic pace which only spurred him to move faster.

The Brain was tied lifelessly to the top of the Cruiser. For the life of Dib he couldn’t remember the finer details of how they’d even managed to get the thing up there. Even driving here had been a blur of stars and inky blackish purples. Through ORA he could diagnose any medical anomaly between Zim and himself but any time he checked since the incident at the smeetery she popped up as offline. It worried him. It worried him that ORA wasn’t responding and it worried him that Zim had yet to wake up. He had no idea what was going on and in turn had no idea how to fix it. He’d tried everything he could the entire ride back to Earth. He hadn’t even cared that it was damn near ten in the morning! So what if someone saw them landing? Their neighbors saw Gir waltzing around on his ‘hind legs’ every day!

“Computer, I need access to his bedroom!” Dib called out hoarsely, as if he had been screaming, as he power walked his way for the platform that would take them down and into the living room. He’d neglected the ‘please’ that Computer was so fond of hearing but he wasn’t about to back peddle when Zim’s life was hanging in the balance over a trivial word.

Computer didn’t speak, not readily. He was likely attempting to do the same as Dib had done on the flight here. Accessing Zim’s PAK directly was probably easier than accessing ORA but Dib didn’t see Computer gathering much data. Whatever that damn Control Brain was doing to him was meant to kill him. A wayward glare was shot toward the Brain as the elevator rocked into motion and sent them downwards. If Zim didn’t need it then Dib would have destroyed it where it stood.

“His coding...” Computer began, sounding just a bit confused and tone dripping with the want to ask a question as he hesitated but a moment. Even if he had voiced his query Dib wasn’t sure how he could answer it because he barely knew what was going on! Fortunately, Computer switched gears as Dib hopped off the platform before it had a chance to land and finish integrating with the rest of the living room tiles, Gir waddling behind him for the laboratory elevator, “Access to his bedroom is restricted-“

“For me, yeah, I know! He told me! I don’t think we have the luxury to debate rules right now, Computer!” he argued, the anger he could feel boiling his coolant hot and raw and his hold on Zim tightened, “We can’t get into the medic bay so his bedroom is the next best place!”

Another pause followed his words and this time he could almost feel Computer internalizing his thought process. Computer usually knew best even if Zim didn’t give him much credit. But rules were rules and not abiding by the ones Zim set wasn’t exactly met with the utmost of positive attitudes. Letting Dib in would help Zim but also letting Dib in might anger Zim in the long run. No one really knew Zim’s true reasons for not wanting Dib in his room and no one ever asked. That’s just the way things were and no one fought about it. But right now they didn’t have that time. They couldn’t sit here discussing the therapeutic reasoning behind Zim’s need for having ‘his own space’. If Zim got mad and threw a tantrum because Dib gained access to his bedroom later then at least he was alive to be doing so!

“Alright. But this is on you. If he gets mad at me I’m putting you in sleep mode for a week,” Computer groaned as the elevator lit up, the side table lifting from its spot to give Dib room to enter, “I’m contacting Skoodge. He’s the only other one who I can see with knowledge of how to fix this.”

Under normal circumstances Dib would have hesitated. Going into Zim’s room, wondering what was inside, the incessant need to check in on him - Dib had wasted plenty of his CPU usage on those thoughts in particular and now, here he was, riding the elevator downwards to that very room. If only it were under less extreme circumstances. Maybe in time Zim would have given him access of his own accord. Zim and he weren’t exactly close but they were at least friendly with each other. Dib didn’t miss those passing glances that Zim would shoot in his direction. They were lost, side long stares with a distance to them, like Zim was remembering something or someone else when staring at him, afraid to get too close and afraid to extend trust. Dib never had the heart to stare back so he had instead taken up the act of pretending he never noticed the looks in the first place. It was easier that way, for both of them.

The ride down was long, longer than it normally took to travel to the rest of the laboratory. He always had a feeling that Zim’s room was a few levels lower than the actual laboratory was but he hadn’t thought it was this far down. Zim really took every precaution to get as far away from the base as he could. Dib’s eyes flickered back down to the Irken laying safely tucked against his chest in thought. Had Zim always been this way? Cold? Lost? Dib wasn’t sure he could describe what he thought Zim might feel into words, he’d only been alive for a handful of months. Hell, he didn’t even know how to describe his own feelings and half the time he didn’t even understand them. Should he even have them?

A soft pressured whoosh caught his attention as the doors opened and the lights in the room cut on without a sound. The single dome shaped light that hung off kilter from the rest of the room, more hanging nearest the closet adjacent the bed, was shaped and painted like the moon - or a moon - and it gave the room a warm gentle glow as compared to the harsh white light of the living room. The string of star shaped lights that hung above the length of the bed like a canopy weren’t on but the bulbs were a baby blue color and would have looked honestly rather cute if they were.

The walls, however, were a plain grey. Dark and baron, as if Zim hadn’t thought through exactly what he wanted to put up on them. Or maybe he had and just never settled on one thing in particular. The floor was the same though of a lighter grey and made of some fake wood as far as he could tell. Except for the lone dark purple rug that sat just in front him. Should he take his shoes off? Is that something Zim did? Looking down at the little alien now, curled up against him peacefully, a stark contrast to the screams and wails he’d heard emitting from Zim on Hobo 9, Dib could almost picture it.

“Let’s get you in bed, Zim,” his voice was hushed as he walked over the rug, thankful as it muffled his footsteps. The blankets and sheets were a light purple and plush but the sheets underneath were galaxy themed. Which, oddly, Dib didn’t expect. He expected more purple in truth, that seemed to be Zim’s favorite color. A smile tugged at his lips, his gaze studying the sheet for a moment before he laid Zim down against the mountains of pillows gently.

Should he undress him…? Sleeping in his clothes sounded uncomfortable, especially in that trench coat. Dib wouldn’t know, he didn’t sleep. When he entered sleep mode things were just _dark_ and then when he woke up they weren’t anymore. Still, he could at least get rid of Zim’s shoes and coat. Just to make him comfortable. Why did this make him feel like a creep?

Shaking the thought from his mind with a physical jerk of his head Dib slipped both of Zim’s boots off as slowly as possible and sat them aside at the corner of the bed. That was the easiest part. The trench coat was harder to remove. Any slight jostle and Dib feared he’d wake the Irken. It didn’t seem possible because whatever had happened to the other’s PAK seemed far worse than the word ‘serious’ could describe but he was still cautious. One arm was slipped out slowly before Dib hooked his own arm under Zim’s back to anchor him upwards a few inches off of the bed. The sewn hole made for the PAK slid around it easily and Dib pulled the coat out from under Zim in one swift and gentle movement before slipping Zim’s other arm out. The coat was laid on top of the boots and Dib lowered Zim onto the mattress once more carefully before removing his arm in a slow manner, still fearful of waking the Irken.

“You’re awful attentive.”

Skoodge’s soft voice startled him and he jumped, jostling the entire bed, frame and all, as he whirled around to meet the other’s fond stare. It was just the slightest bit ruined by the worry Dib could see sparkling in Skoodge’s haze. Gir sat in Skoodge’s arms, watching over the pair of them in worried curiosity, his little legs swinging back and forth because sitting still was never an option for Gir regardless of the situation.

“Gir told me you were down here,” voice still just as soft and even, Skoodge closed the distance between himself and the bed, his steps far softer than Dib’s had been which Dib was vastly thankful for, “If I recall, this area is restricted for you.”

“Yeah, well-“

“Mary had to!” Gir was damn near close to tears and they were welling up in his bright blue eyes fast as he threw his arms into the air and looked to Skoodge with a quivering bottom lip, “Master’s hurt! Fix him!”

“Okay, okay. That’s why I’m here. Don’t worry,” Skoodge placed a placating hand on the top of Gir’s head before patting him softly. He wasn’t quite sure of the finer details but Computer had given him the scrambled coding of Zim’s PAK so he at least had an inkling of what he was working with. If neither Gir nor Dib could tell him what had happened then he could extract the video feed from ORA later. Zim might get angry at him for it but he’d cross that bridge when he came to it.

Gir was sat at the corner of the bed in a gentle manner before Skoodge and Dib were exchanging places at the edge by Zim’s side though reluctantly. Dib hovered over Zim like a wolf protecting their pup. Or mate. Skoodge had observed this before when Zim had PAK sickness five months ago, how Dib would occasionally hover around the Irken. It had been endearing then, Dib had no clue why he had been feeling the way he was and Zim was entirely lost to the concept. Things grew quickly once they had realized, once Skoodge explained how disconnected Irken’s worked. And now… 

Skoodge was just thankful Zim was asleep. While the gesture likely didn’t mean the same for Dib now it would have an entirely different meaning for Zim and likely not a great reception at that. Memories could be looked back on fondly but Zim was still processing and likely would for a while. Zim wouldn’t have the strength for an argument but he would damn well try, especially if he felt slighted or hurt.

“Hey.”

It never surprised him how well the Android could read the room, though. Zim did well on the AI. Dib’s voice was feather light and dripping with concern. He was so Earthen, human, it hurt _Skoodge_. How did Zim live with him?

A quiet moment passed as Skoodge rolled Zim on his side with his back and PAK facing him, retrieving his tablet as his own Computer flew from his PAK before answering. His voice was just as hushed, tight and strained as he narrowed his eyes at the scuff marks across the port on Zim’s own, “Yes, Dib?”

“Was Zim always…” the Android trailed off in thought, eyes averting to stare holes into the purple carpet under his feet as Skoodge connected his tablet to Zim’s PAK. It didn’t take a scientist to realize that Dib was hesitant to ask his question. To him he had only known Zim for a matter of months compared to the eight years his subconscious had known him, “Has Zim always been so...uuhh…”

“Bitter?” Skoodge finished the sentence for him, a melancholic smile quirking his lips as he side eyed the Android for a time when Dib nodded, “He’s always sort of been an asshole. But I guess his attitude of malcontent was driven by the fact he needed constant validation. This? The cold bitterness? No. He wasn’t always.”

A soft and contemplative hum sounded in the back of Dib’s throat and he crossed his arms about his chest tightly before speaking again, a tad bit louder than before, “Had something happened?”

Something in the back of his mind had always told him that this conversation would come eventually. It never told him that he’d be the one giving the answer but he knew that it would happen. Dib was too close to Zim no matter the context and living with him only cemented the feelings locked away in Dib’s subconscious. Things would start to get confusing eventually and he’d tried to warn Zim for days. He was afraid of this, of Dib’s AI knowing too much before Dib’s true consciousness could integrate. If it ever did.

Skoodge sighed softly and sat his tablet down in his lap, free hand still poised with the pen held between his fingers ready to tap at the options popping up on his screen so he could give Dib his full attention. This was a delicate situation to be in. Anything he said could trigger a reaction in Dib that was undesirable. Having Dib’s subconscious integrate was something meant to happen in time, slowly and on Dib’s own accord. Dib has to find his own way. If he ruined things then Zim would never forgive him.

“He…” this would have to be put in a way that seemed ambiguous, in a way that Dib might not be able to relate to himself. At least not readily, “lost someone very close to him recently. He took it pretty hard.”

“I see.”

That wasn’t exactly the answer Skoodge had thought Dib would give him. Actually, now that he thought about it in hindsight, he wasn’t honestly sure what he thought Dib could answer with. What Skoodge had said wasn’t exactly insightful. There wasn’t much that Dib could go on just on Skoodge’s words alone. They didn’t give him details about Zim nor did they tell Dib how to better care for the Irken. While Skoodge wasn’t as clumsy as he once was, this conversation required far more finesse than he could give it at current. He had Zim to worry about.

“He’s mourning, Dib,” were the words he settled on as he brought his tablet back up to eye level and began punching away at options and coding as they appeared to him, “A loss that great, it will take time.”

Take time for what was a question he wouldn’t entertain so he made sure he looked busy enough. It sounded like a secret code and he kicked himself for it because he knew it would only make the Android all the more curious and confused but there was nothing else he could do. His hands were tied. Whatever this was between them, between Dib and Zim, he had no part in. Coding and medical were his forte now and that’s what he was here to do.

Another sigh left the Android, one of defeat as he conceded likely for the fact that he realized Skoodge wasn’t going to say much more than that. He stepped closer once more, hovering as he stuffed his hands into his jean pockets, “So, what happened?”

“Something tried to delete him,” Skoodge left out the word ‘again’ in case it triggered an undesired memory even though his voice was laced with confusion, “The coding is scrambled so it’s up to me to unscramble it.”

“But he’ll be okay?” genuine worry dripped from each syllable as Dib met his gaze, eyes alight with more than just AI neutrality.

It was the rare moments such as these that Skoodge would witness during transmissions that made him question just how much of Dib actually lingered in the Android. Sometimes Dib would say things or do things or look at Zim in a certain manner that an AI without feelings just wouldn’t be capable of conveying. It didn’t matter how intelligent or lifelike the AI was, emotions were hard to replicate. Dib had a plethora of emotions even if he didn’t use them or didn’t know how to access them.

But, he had to focus on Zim and recoding the Irken’s PAK. With the other asleep he could stick around for a time until Zim was awake. And once he was they were definitely going to have a conversation about Dib.

“He will, I’ll make sure of it. But I need to know what happened,” Skoodge locked eyes with Dib, his Computer hovering around his head silently, “Can you tell me, please?”

Quickly Dib’s eyes averted, avoiding Skoodge’s own as he shifted on his feet nervously. A beat of hesitation passed between them as Dib tried to look anywhere other than at Skoodge. Their mission hadn’t been sanctioned by Lard Nar or a Resisty Commander and Zim had taken his own initiative into finding a Control Brain that they could steal without alerting the rest of the Armada. Heaven forbid if the Tallest actually found out. Dib didn’t know much about them nor of the Armada but he knew enough to be cautious.

But Skoodge needed an answer. Knowing how Zim’s coding was scrambled would help in fixing it. Lying or omitting details wouldn’t end well for either of them.

“Zim couldn’t get the virus to work on an Earthen computer,” he started slow as his gaze finally met with Skoodge’s in soft determination, “So, he found an abandoned smeetery on Hobo 9-“

Apparently Skoodge already knew where this was going because he groaned as a hand lifted to massage at his temples in growing frustration as he growled, “Oh Irk… We’ve tried to take that Control Brain before, it-“

“We got it.”

Skoodge lifted his head so quickly to give Dib a confused stare that his neck cricked but he was able to suppress the wince in favor of stuttering out a shocked, “Wh-What?”

“We got it. We managed to get it disconnected because it focused on Zim. It couldn’t detect me and wasn’t aware Gir was around yet,” his words were hurried as his eyes flickered from Skoodge to Zim as if wordlessly telling the Irken to hurry, hands clenched in the pockets of his jeans to keep himself from reaching out for Zim. The urge tugged at something deep inside, he couldn’t pinpoint the pull yet though.

Slowly Skoodge allowed his eyes to drift, casting them to the floor as he lost himself to his thoughts. Dib’s own fell on the tablet then to sneak a peek while Skoodge was distracted, watching as the program the Irken had deployed began unscrambling Zim’s coding. Even with his translator still active he couldn’t read a damn thing. The words scrawled by too quickly for him to keep up and what words he did catch didn’t mean much. Simple life support and things that kept the weapons in Zim’s PAK active - it wasn’t anything of use or interest. A small sigh left him through his nose and he tore his gaze from the screen. Finding more out about Zim was harder than he thought.

“How long will you stay?” the least he could do is be the one to give Zim the bad news about their unwanted house guest. Dib liked Skoodge and Gir adored everyone but Zim preferred his self isolation and Dib never understood why. It was easier for Zim to find out through him than to wake up to Skoodge leaning over him at his bedside.

When Skoodge’s gaze flitted up to meet his, the Irken gave a snort, understanding the hidden meaning behind the question as well, “Three days to make sure nothing happens with his PAK. I don’t want him to develop PAK sickness again.”

Again. What did that mean? Had Zim been deleted before? When had this happened? Dib’s eyes fell on Zim’s prone form as the smaller lay curled up on his side in the bed. A protectiveness welled up in the pit of his stomach, warm at first but growing hotter. Something vague scratched at the back of his CPU but he couldn’t place it, almost like a memory being held out of his reach. It was an odd sensation, like he could remember the situation Skoodge was referring to but at the same time _couldn’t_. It irritated him, had him feeling like Skoodge was keeping something from him.

“I’ll fix the couch for you,” because if he stayed in this room for much longer then he might do something he’d regret, “Come and get me when you’re finished with this.”

Hopefully ORA came online soon and he could re-establish a connection with her as he made up the couch. Dib wanted to keep an eye on Zim himself, it made him feel better watching the other’s organ beat. He trusted Skoodge with his and Zim’s lives but he wasn’t fond of being lied to, even if only a little bit. Their eyes met one last time as he entered the elevator. Before the doors could lock in position Dib swore he saw a flicker of guilt in Skoodge’s own. Things were starting to feel complicated.


End file.
